Blitz Showdown Between Karpov, Seirawan

By WGM Jennifer Shahade

The rapid portion of the clash between legends, Anatoly Karpov and Yasser Seirawan ended in two draws. In the first game, Karpov achieved a dominant position in the same line of the Slav that they played in round one of the classical match. In the post-game commentary, Karpov and Seirawan agreed that Yasser's main hope was Karpov's time deficit.

In the end, Karpov accepted Yasser's draw offer in a better position due to his rapidly dwindling clock. He also pointed out that even though black was worse in the final position, he had no active plans, so Seirawan's position was easier to play quickly.

In the second game, Karpov chose the Lasker Defense of the Queen's Gambit Declined. This surprised Yasser, and he did not get much with the white pieces. The game was drawn after 34 moves.

A 10-game blitz showdown will determine the winner of this tight match. Tune in to livestream.com/uschess starting at 1 p.m. local/2 EST for live commentary by GM Ben Finegold and WGM Jennifer Shahade.

The players are also scheduled to host an extended live press conference via Livestream at 4:30 p.m. local time today, and chess journalists, bloggers and fans worldwide are encouraged to visit the Chess Club's Livestream channel and log in using Facebook or Livestream to submit questions.

Questions can also be submitted using the hashtag USChess (#USChess) on Twitter.