Countdown to the 1997 Interplay US Chess Championships

The 1997 Interplay U.S. Chess Championships:
Site Report

The following interviews with the two winners from Round 1 of the Semi-Finals were provided by NM Matt Guthrie from the site.

Round 1 Post-Game Interviews

Only a few minutes after the conclusion of their first round victories, both Joel benjamin and Yasser Seirawan were gracious enough to take a few minutes of their time to comment upon both the completed games, and the upcoming contests.

GM Joel Benjamin

Joel noted that Gregory Kaidanov had been a noted authority on the Open Variation of the Ruy Lopez when he had lived in Russia, thus the extremely unusual 5.Nc3, which prevents the Open Variation. Joel opined that 39...Qf4, forcing the Queen trade, was a mistake, and described 41.g4! as "...a typical move; of course he doesn't have time to take en passant." Joel felt that Black was losing after 41...d5, with 41...Rb7 being the only chance, on which he would have played 42.Rd6, a piece sacrifice leading to a position he described as unclear. Joel further stated that 44.e5!, instead of the obvious 44.exd5, was clearly the best move, and quite possibly the only move to win. Because of his good prior record (+4 -1) against Kaidanov, Joel considers this a good semi-final pairing for him.

GM Yasser Seirawan

"Larry and I play two types of games." said Yasser. "Quiet, positional ones that I win or draw, and wild ones that he wins. I have never beaten Larry in a tactical game." Today's contest was clearly of the former type. A Bogo-Indian line in which White loses a tempo with his dark-squared Bishop in order to attempt to show the Black b4 Bishop misplaced, led to an early middlegame with a nagging White edge. Yasser felt that Black lost a key tempo with ...Rb8, and a position was soon reached where White had a choice of two attractive plans. True to his style, Yasser opted to play an ending that he believed was "...very good, almost certainly winning..." by playing Nh4xBg6, and then trading the major pieces on the d-file, rather than opting for a promising middlegame by playing Nh4-f5, followed by e4 and e5. After the time control, the endgame became a typical Yasser squeeze, in which he agreed with my suggestion of ...Nf8, intending ...Ne6, instead of the overly passive ...Nb8 as Black's last chance. In the final position the plausible ...Nxe6 would be met by Bxe6, followed by Kg6, reaching a picturesque mutual zugzwang.