Seirawan

I think Yasser Seirawan is the most knowledgeable person on the subject of chess anyone agree?

Sorry to lower the tone, but this might be of interest:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jun/06/sexbyothermeans

Apparently Gormally was set upon after the punching incident by a group of enraged Armenians and he was only saved from a beating by a well-known GM who stepped in to mediate, apparently he had Gormally pinned against a wall with one arm, while holding the Armenians at bay with the other.

It was Seirawan.

That's because his 'parents' were suppposedly; 'Syrian' and-or 'English'!  [ ;

,, I share your sentiment, though; And, his {youtube} 'lecture'-storytelling' delivery, Is 'mesmerizing'!  [ :

....if you only knew what I knew about Yaz........

..'Back-in-the-day'..{'2002' a.d. - and, before that!}

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Chess-champ-Seirawan-has-all-the-right-moves-1076972.php

He's great and I enjoyed the openings book. It is a good primer on most common openings and the chapters in systems for black and white are very useful. He doesn't make any claim to having invented these systems (that would be ridiculous) nor has he ever claimed to be the most knowledgeable chess pundit.

Mr G posts on these forums and hates being reminded of this incident. Can't blame him really, he must be sick of hearing about it

My money would have been on Mr. G. I guess Yasser saved Aronian.

Don't know about it his opening book, but his chess brillancy book is awesome. Anyone read chess duels? Is it an entertaining read or a heavily annotated game collection book?

thanks lasker. i might give it a try...

Maybe he shouldn't have punched someone at a chess tournament then.

It was at a party, not a tournament - and he's English so I suspect he'd had a few beers. 

But I'm sure he would agree he should not have decked Aronian. Most of us have done things we regret, but most of our transgressions don't make it into national newspapers!

Back to the OP, I personally enjoy Yasser Seirawan's lectures and videos on YouTube more than most other lecturers I've seen.  (Thanks to Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis for uploading their lecture series!)  I don't think he's the best or most knowledgeable, but I would say he's the most entertaining I've watched.  His personable manner, his soft-spoken voice, the fact that he doesn't shoot down suggested moves but walks through their consequences, and his fun stories make for an educational entertainment.

I would say that I can see how somebody could easily come across with the idea that he is the most knowledgeable, however:  I can only rate somebody else's knowledge up to the level I've attained, and I make my judgements of my betters based on my own personal knowledgebase.  Because I enjoy watching Yaz' lectures, I see more Yaz than I see others.  Because I've learned a lot from Yaz, our knowledgebases are similar (if his is way better than mine).  Therefore, using my own mind as a metric, I would rate Yaz higher than, say, Kasparov, simply because I've not seen lectures from Kas, and his chess theory is different than mine by way more than the difference between mine and Yaz.

Facts, people.

• @ Stuzzi She was not Aronian's girlfriend, just a friend.
• @ SilentKnight It was not at a chess tournament. It was at a Bermuda party during the Olympiad 2006.
• @ everyone Seirawan is brilliant. In so many ways.
• It was indeed Seirawan who stepped in to save the day. (I believe he has some experience in one of the martial arts, need to check that sometime)

Arianne Caoili                             Danny Gormally                            The victim

I really like Gormally, but she's totally out of his league.

Fact.