Mike Serovey On Chess

Here is my most recent game completed at Stan's Net Chess. This game helped me to reach one of my goals set last year. This win put my rating at Stan's Net Chess over 2200 points. Keep in mind that the ratings at Stan's Net Chess are inflated. My highest USCF correspondence rating was 1940 and highest OTB rating was 1793. My new rating is 2203 and my opponent's rating dropped to 2210. This game was my second time playing the Dutch defense and my first win with it. The complete game, with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/joblack-DutchDefense.html. Here is the game in PGN.

[Event "Game 429544"]
[Site "Stan's NetChess"]
[Date "2008.03.21"]
[Round "?"]
[White "joblack"]
[Black "mserovey"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. d4 f5 2. g3 e6 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. Nf3 g6 5. c4 Bg7 6. Nc3 O-O 7. O-O d6 8. Bg5Nbd7 9. e3 h6 10. Bxf6 Nxf6 11. Rc1 Qe8 12. b4 e5 13. dxe5 dxe5 14. Qb3 e4 15.Nd4 Qf7 16. Rfd1 Ng4 17. Nce2 Ne5 18. Nf4 a5 19. b5 g5 20. Nfe2 a4 21. Qc2 Nd322. Rxd3 exd3 23. Qxd3 Qe7 24. c5 Qf7 25. e4 fxe4 26. Bxe4 Qxf2+ 27. Kh1 Bg4 28.Bg2 Rae8 29. Rf1 Bxe2 30. Qg6 Bxf1 31. Bd5+ Kh8 32. Ne6 Bg2+ 33. Bxg2 Qe1+ 0-1

Labels: Dutch Defense

Here is another one of my wins played at Stan's Net Chess. In this one I played the White side of an A23 English: Bremen system, Keres variation. From there I transposed into my usual Botvinnik system. For part of the game my opponent's rating was over 2400, but it dropped to 2358 at the conclusion of this game. My rating went up to 2190. I am only 11 points away from reaching my goal of going over 2200 at Stan's Net Chess by the end of 2008! Depending on the rating of my opponents I can go over 2200 with one or two more wins and no losses.

This entire game, with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/richcavalier-English.html. Here is the game in PGN.

[Event "Game 425751"]
[Site "Stan's NetChess"]
[Date "2008.02.05"]
[Round "?"]
[White "mserovey"]
[Black "richcavalier"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 c6 4. e4 d6 5. Bg2 Be7 6. d3 O-O 7. Nge2 Bg4 8. f3 Be69. O-O d5 10. cxd5 cxd5 11. exd5 Nxd5 12. Nxd5 Bxd5 13. Be3 Nc6 14. a3 Bf6 15.Nc3 Be6 16. Ne4 Be7 17. f4 exf4 18. Rxf4 Re8 19. Qd2 Ne5 20. Nf2 Ng6 21. Bxb7Rb8 22. Bc6 Nxf4 23. Bxf4 Rb6 24. Bxe8 Qxe8 25. Be3 Rd6 26. Bxa7 Bf6 27. Ne4Bd4+ 28. Bxd4 Rxd4 29. Nc5 Bh3 30. Re1 Qc6 31. b4 h6 32. Qe2 Rd8 33. Qe4 Qf6 34.Qh4 Qxh4 35. gxh4 Rd6 36. Kf2 Rd4 37. b5 Rxh4 38. Re8+ Kh7 39. b6 Rh5 40. b7Rxc5 41. b8=Q Rc2+ 42. Ke3 {Black resigned} 1-0

I have decided that I am going to play another quad at ICC because I can play for free because I have my membership paid up until December. I just need one more win to get my ICC correspondence chess rating over 1600. Yes, I may have to put up with someone going over on the time limit and getting away with just a warning, which irks me to no end, but I really do want to play more correspondence chess.

Labels: English Opening

Here is another chess game played at Stan's Net Chess. This game was a B22 Sicilian: Alapin's variation (3.c3). White played some moves that I wasn't expecting but many of those moves turned out to be blunders. You can see the entire game, complete with analysis and diagrams, at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/James-the-II-Sicilian.html. Here is the game in PGN.

[Event "Game 425740"]
[Site "Stan's NetChess"]
[Date "2008.02.05"]
[Round "?"]
[White "JAMES THE II"]
[Black "mserovey"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 e5 4. a3 Nf6 5. Bd3 d5 6. Bb5 Bd6 7. exd5 Nxd5 8. O-OO-O 9. Bc4 Nb6 10. Be2 e4 11. Ne1 c4 12. f4 Qc7 13. b3 cxb3 14. Qxb3 Bxf4 15.Qc2 Bxh2+ 16. Kh1 Re8 17. d4 Bg3 18. Be3 Qe7 19. Nf3 exf3 20. Rxf3 Qh4+ 21. Kg1Qh2+ 22. Kf1 Qh1+ 23. Bg1 Bh2 24. Ke1 Qxg1+ 25. Rf1 Qxg2 26. Ra2 Bg4 0-1

Labels: Sicilian Defense

I know how some people hate to give out their email addresses to websites because they are afraid of spam. Well, I have a small solution to that problem. If you want to be notified when I update my chess site you can do so without giving me your email address. I just uploaded a small application that you can get for free. Once installed on your computer it will check my site once a day for updates. If it finds that the site has been updated it will display a small message on your computer screen that tells you that my chess site has been updated. You can get this application by going to http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/ and scrolling down near the bottom. The link to click on is just above the button that allows you to make a donation to my site. If you would like to make a similar application for one of your own web sites you can buy the application making software from me for a measly $5.95 for personal use and $19.95 if you want master resell rights. I will upload the application making software and sales page to http://www.mikeseroveyenterprises.com/ later on today. Check my Products page for more information.

Labels: Free Software

I recently found out about something called hubpages. They basically give you some web space so that you can publish articles on any topic that you want, as long as it is not on their list of forbidden topics. We can get paid for publishing articles there. I set up a hubpage on how to win at chess. It can be found at http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Win-at-Chess. I plan to publish other related articles there as well and they will go into a group on chess. Please check it out and leave some nice comments for me to read.

Labels: Hubpages

Here is one of my games from an OTB tournament played in 2005. I haven't played that much OTB chess in the last 3 years so I don't have that many recent games to publish. In this game I missed a couple of winning moves and had to settle for a draw. As a rule, if the game goes more than 60 moves and ends in a draw then I have probably missed a win somewhere. The entire game, with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/EricLang-English.html. Here is the game in PGN.

[Event "SPCC July open"]
[Site "St. Pete Chess Club"]
[Date "2005.07.30"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Mike Serovey"]
[Black "Eric Lang"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1. c4 e6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. b3 Nbd7 7. Bb2 c5 8. d3 b69. cxd5 exd5 10. Nbd2 Bb7 11. Ne5 Qc7 12. Nxd7 Qxd7 13. e4 dxe4 14. Nxe4 Nxe415. dxe4 Qe6 16. Qc2 Bf6 17. Bxf6 Qxf6 18. f4 Rfe8 19. e5 Qe7 20. Rfd1 Bxg2 21.Qxg2 Rad8 22. Qc2 Rd7 23. Rxd7 Qxd7 24. Rd1 Qc7 25. Qd3 h6 26. Qd7 Qxd7 27. Rxd7Ra8 28. Kf2 Kf8 29. Ke3 Ke8 30. Rc7 g6 31. g4 a5 32. Rb7 Ra6 33. Kd3 a4 34. f5axb3 35. axb3 Ra2 36. fxg6 fxg6 37. Rxb6 Kf7 38. h3 Rh2 39. Rf6+ Kg7 40. Rf3 Ra241. e6 Ra7 42. Rf7+ Rxf7 43. exf7 Kxf7 44. Kc4 Ke6 45. Kxc5 Kd7 46. b4 Kc7 47.b5 h5 48. gxh5 gxh5 49. h4 Kb7 50. b6 Kb8 51. Kc6 Kc8 52. Kd6 Kb7 53. Ke6 Kxb654. Kf6 Kc6 55. Kg6 Kd7 56. Kxh5 Ke7 57. Kg6 Kf8 58. Kh7 Kf7 59. h5 Kf6 60. h6Kf7 61. Kh8 Kf8 62. h7 Kf7 {Stalemate} 1/2-1/2

Labels: Chess Tournament Result, English Opening

Last month I did renew my membership in ICC even though I am a little unhappy with them. I got the student discount rate because I am now in graduate school. I had one correspondence chess game still going and didn't want to lose it on forfeit. I had that happen to a few games years ago when I failed to renew my ICC membership. It hurt my ICC correspondence chess rating and my correspondence chess win-loss ratio. Also, ICC does have some lectures and training programs that can help me improve. Overall, I think that the money that I spent to renew my ICC membership was worth it and I will get enough value for my money over the course of 2008. We will see about renewing for 2009 when the time comes. As for playing any more correspondence chess games at ICC, I may, but right now I am leaning toward not playing any more at ICC. I am still having a problem with the fact that they don't enforce the time controls.

Labels: ICC