Yasser Seirawan is one of the top-ranked chess players in the USA and was the first American candidate for the World Championship title since Bobby Fischer. He is a four-time US Champion, the 1989 Western Hemisphere Champion, and a ten-time member of the US Chess Olympiad team. His achievements distinguish him as one of only a handful of players to defeat world champions Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov in tournament play.