My Win Against yacc Playing the White Side of the French Defense

From time to time I play against chess playing programs at ICC. One of these programs is called yacc. I have played several games against yacc and usually win. Posted below is the PGN for my latest win against yacc. The entire game, with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/Yacc-FrenchDefense.html.

[Event "ICC 20 20"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.12.24"]
[Round "-"]
[White "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Black "yacc"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black checkmated"]
[WhiteElo "1520"]
[BlackElo "1502"]
[Opening "French: advance, Euwe variation"]
[ECO "C02"]
[NIC "FR.03"]
[Time "22:21:40"]
[TimeControl "1200+20"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bd7 4. c3 c5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bd3 cxd4 7. cxd4 Nb4 8. O-O Nxd3 9. Qxd3 Bb4 10. a3 Be7 11. Nc3 Rc8 12. Bd2 Qb6 13. b4 Rc4 14. Rfc1 f6 15. Be3 Kf7 16. Nd2 Rc7 17. Na2 Bb5 18. Qb3 fxe5 19. dxe5 Rxc1+ 20. Rxc1 d4 21. Bf4 d3 22. a4 Ba6 23. b5 Bh4 24. Be3 Qa5 25. bxa6 Qxa6 26. Nb4 Qa5 27. Nxd3 b6 28. Qb4 Qxb4 29. Nxb4 Be7 30. Nc6 a6 31. Bxb6 Ba3 32. Rc3 Bb2 33. Rd3 Ne7 34. Rd7 Re8 35. Bc5 Bc3 36. Nc4 Kg6 37. Nxe7+ Kh5 38. Ra7 Rb8 39. Nb6 Bxe5 40. Nc6 Bd6 41. Nxb8 Bxc5 42. Rxa6 Kg4 43. N6d7 Bd4 44. Rxe6 Kf5 45. Re8 Kf4 46. a5 Ba7 47. Nc6 Bxf2+ 48. Kxf2 h5 49. a6 g5 50. a7 Kf5 51. a8=Q Kg4 52. Qa4+ Kf5 53. Qe4# {Black checkmated} 1-0

French Defense

My Chess Goals For 2007

I just reviewed my chess goals for 2006. It looks like I missed every single one of them! I don't think that I played a single game at Stan's Net Chess all year, so I missed my goals of getting an established rating over 2200.

If I remember right, I only played 2 USCF rated tournaments all year and didn't do very well in those. As a result my USCF OTB rating dropped to 1500. It cannot go below 1500 unless the USCF changes its policy on ratings floors. Otherwise, it would have dropped below 1500 as a result of my last tournament. I lost every game that I played! I didn't play any Quick Chess, Blitz, or USCF rated Correspondence tournaments at all in 2006. I missed my goals of getting my USCF Standard rating over 1600 and winning an Under 1600 prize.

I did play several games at ICC and posted many of those games at my site located at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com. My Standard rating at ICC bounced around in the lower 1500 range and never go anywhere near 1600! I don't remember playing any Blitz or 5 Minute games at ICC this year. My current Standard Rating at ICC is 1520. Here are my statistics at ICC so far:

Statistics for OnGoldenPawn

rating [need] win loss draw total best
Blitz 1394 [8] 14 28 6 48 1441 (13-Mar-2005)
Standard 1520 [4] 60 73 18 151 1674 (03-Jul-2004)
5-minute 851 [8] 1 2 0 3
Correspondence 1551 5 7 2 14

I still have 2 correspondence games going at ICC. Both games are against an opponent who has already gone over the time control and been warned about it. If he exceeds the new, extremely generous, time control in either game I can claim a time forfeit in that game. So far, he is staying within the new time control. So, my goal it to win both of those games if I can.

I did request to be entered into several correspondence events at ICC even though I am irritated that they allow people to violate the time controls and get off with a warning. I need to practice as much as I can in order to improve my chess play. Also, I can learn and practice new openings by using them in correspondence games. When all is said and done, I may have up to 20 correspondence games going on simultaneously. That should give me plenty of practice!

I have some money coming to me from the VA. I got an increase in my service-connected rating with 3 years back pay. I'm not sure when I will actually get the money nor do I know exactly how much I am getting. Even so, I did an estimate and plan to use some of that money to play in a big money tournament in or near Orlando. So, I still have a goal of winning an Under 1600 prize or section and then bringing my USCF Standard rating back over 1600. Eventually, I plan to get my rating back over 1700, but it probably won't happen before the end of 2007.

My sleep cycle is still messed up and I tend to be up late and to sleep in late. That could cause some serious problems with early morning rounds! My plan is to take a 1/2 point bye in the morning rounds, if allowed, and to play in the later rounds. That would make winning the section outright difficult, but second or third place would still be possible if I win all of the games that I actually play in. That should help some with the fatigue problem that I have had in the past.

So, to summarize, my goals for 2007 are to bring my USCF Standard rating up to over 1600, to bring my ICC Standard rating up to over 1600, to get my ICC Correspondence rating up to over 1600, to win some Under 1600 prizes in both ICC and USCF play, and to rejoin Stan's Net Chess and then get an established rating over 2200. I also plan to play in at least one Orlando tournament, which should be for big money.

Chess Goals

Mike Serovey Defeats Phil Curtis With The English Opening

Posted below is the PGN format notation of my game at ICC against Phil Curtis. This game ended up being an English Opening against a Sicilian Defense. I was able to get a passed pawn in the Center and an attack on the f file against a Knight on f6. I then went up the exchange again and was up a Rook instead of just a Knight. Black continued to make errors and finally resigned when I captured his last Rook and queened a pawn at the same time. The entire game, with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/PhilCurtis-Siclian.html.

[Event "ICC 35 10"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.12.03"]
[Round "-"]
[White "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Black "PhilCurtis"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1511"]
[BlackElo "1508"]
[Opening "Sicilian defense"]
[ECO "B20"]
[NIC "SI.48"]
[Time "00:10:14"]
[TimeControl "2100+10"]

1. e4 c5 2. c4 d6 3. d3 Nc6 4. Ne2 Nf6 5. g3 g6 6. Bg2 Bg7 7. O-O O-O 8. Nbc3 Bd7 9. h3 a6 10. Be3 Qb6 11. Rb1 Rfe8 12. f4 e6 13. g4 Kh8 14. d4 e5 15. fxe5 dxe5 16. d5 Nd4 17. Bg5 Nxe2+ 18. Qxe2 Rad8 19. Qf3 Rf8 20. Bxf6 Kg8 21. Bxd8 Qxd8 22. Qe3 b6 23. b4 Qh4 24. bxc5 Bh6 25. Qf2 Qxf2+ 26. Rxf2 Be3 27. cxb6 Bxf2+ 28. Kxf2 Rb8 29. a4 Kf8 30. a5 Ke7 31. c5 h6 32. c6 Be8 33. Bf1 Kd6 34. Bxa6 Ra8 35. b7 Kc7 36. bxa8=Q {Black resigns} 1-0

Sicilian Defense

Mike Serovey Loses to fhunfi

Every month ICC has a standard tournament that is played on Tuesday nights. For this month Round 1 was played on December 5. I got paired against fhunfi (Chien Ming) and played the Black side of an English Opening. The game actually looked more like a Maroczy Bind versus a Sicilian Dragon. I made an error that caused me to lose my Queenside pawns and thus resigned. I forgot to show up for Round 2 until it was too late and thus forfeited that round. I then withdrew from the tournament. The game from Round 1 is quoted below in PGN format. The game, with diagrams and analysis, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/fhunfi-English.html.

[Event "ICC 60 0"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.12.05"]
[Round "-"]
[White "fhunfi"]
[Black "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1969"]
[BlackElo "1522"]
[Opening "English: symmetrical, Benoni formation"]
[ECO "A31"]
[NIC "OI.06"]
[Time "23:14:49"]
[TimeControl "3600+0"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nf3 g6 4. Nc3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bg7 6. e4 d6 7. Be2 O-O 8. O-O Nc6 9. Nc2 Bd7 10. Be3 a6 11. f3 Rb8 12. Qd2 Qa5 13. Rab1 Rfc8 14. b4 Qd8 15. Rfd1 Ne5 16. c5 dxc5 17. bxc5 Be6 18. Qxd8+ Rxd8 19. Rxd8+ Rxd8 20. Rxb7 {Black resigns} 1-0

Chess Tournament Results English Opening

Mike Serovey On Chess Will Have A New Look

The hosting for two of my domain names has expired. That left these two sites suspended for a few days. Instead of renewing the hosting for two sites that aren't really earning any money I decided to move the hosting over to Go Daddy and use the free hosting that they offer. I get more space and bandwidth than I did with my paid hosting and the only real drawback is that each and every page of these two sites will have Go Daddy's advertising at the top of them. So, the new look will be that there will be new ads at the top of every page. The other change that I am going to make is to remove the server side includes in some of my pages. I will keep the .shtml extension for these pages so that links to these pages will still work. I still have to wait for Go Daddy to complete the set up and then I can upload http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com to the new server. The site should be up and running again by 4 PM EST Tuesday, December 12.

Chess Site

Mike Serovey Draws SlowBo With The Sicilian Defense

I have updated my chess site with a game played in 2005 on ICC. It was against a computer program named SlowBo. I had an advantage in development in the opening and then won a pawn. However, a sacrifice by White left me in an endgame with two passed pawns versus a bishop. I was unable to promote either pawn and had to settle for a draw. Here is the game in PGN:

[Event "ICC 25 10"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2005.02.19"]
[Round "-"]
[White "SlowBo"]
[Black "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ICCResult "Game drawn because neither player has mating material"]
[WhiteElo "1884"]
[BlackElo "1596"]
[Opening "Sicilian: Nimzovich-Rossolimo attack (without ...d6)"]
[ECO "B30"]
[NIC "SI.31"]
[Time "18:45:34"]
[TimeControl "1500+10"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bd3 d6 5. Ng5 h6 6. Qh5 Ne5 7. Be2 Nf6 8. Nxf7 Nxf7 9. Qg6 Be6 10. f4 Kd7 11. f5 Bxf5 12. exf5 Ne5 13. Qg3 Rg8 14. O-O g5 15. Rd1 Qb6 16. Qb3 Qxb3 17. axb3 Bg7 18. Re1 Raf8 19. Bc4 Nxc4 20. bxc4 h5 21. Nc3 g4 22. Re2 Re8 23. Na4 Kc6 24. Ra3 Nd7 25. Rb3 Rgf8 26. d3 Rxf5 27. Be3 Ref8 28. Rf2 Rxf2 29. Bxf2 b5 30. cxb5+ axb5 31. Nc3 c4 32. Rb4 Bxc3 33. bxc3 d5 34. Be3 e5 35. Rb1 Nc5 36. d4 exd4 37. cxd4 Ne4 38. Re1 b4 39. Rb1 Kb5 40. Kh1 Nf2+ 41. Kg1 Ne4 42. Re1 b3 43. h4 gxh3 44. cxb3 hxg2 45. bxc4+ Kxc4 46. Kxg2 Rg8+ 47. Kh3 Rg3+ 48. Kh4 Kd3 49. Bc1 Kxd4 50. Rxe4+ Kxe4 51. Kxg3 d4 52. Bg5 Kd3 53. Be7 Ke2 54. Bf6 d3 55. Bg5 d2 56. Bxd2 Kxd2 57. Kh4 Ke2 58. Kxh5 {Game drawn because neither player has mating material} 1/2-1/2

This game, complete with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/SlowBo-Siclian.html.

Sicilian Defense

My Chess Store

Amazon.com is now allowing their affiliates to set up online stores, complete with a shopping cart, that can be stand alone sites or incorporated into existing sites. I set up my chess store and included it into my chess site. The store is located at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/ChessStore.html. You can purchase chess books, software, boards and sets, plus other game related stuff, at this web page. If you click on the link near the bottom of the page you can sign up for your own Amazon affiliate account.

Chess Store

ICC Correspondence Chess

I have entered two different correspondence chess tournaments at ICC. I didn't do very well in the first one because I let my ICC membership expire prior to completing those games and lost a few of them on forfeit. I entered another one this year and still have two games left. It is these two games that have me ticked off at ICC right now. My opponent, JimGaming, exceeded the time control in both of my games with him! I sent time complaints to the tournament director both times and it took about 3 weeks for the director to respond to my complaints! In both cases my opponent was given a warning and more time to complete his moves! There was no mention of me getting more time to complete my moves! Why does my opponent, who has already violated the initial time control, get more time to play and I don't when I have been within the specified time control?!? IF my opponent violates the new time control, and I complain about it, then I get a win on time forfeit! I don't think that is fair and that is why I refuse to enter any more correspondence tournaments at ICC. I believe that the USCF has a similar rule about time controls in correspondence chess. In a regular over the board chess game my opponent would lose if I called him or her for exceeding the time control! Why is this different for correspondence chess? No one has given me a good reason for this yet!

Correspondence Chess

Mike Serovey Loses to winerum in an ICC correspondence game

Here is the PGN version of my loss to winerum at ICC. The complete game, with analysis and diagrams can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/Winerum-Sicilian.html.

[Event "ICC correspondence 2006SC18QF.02.03"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.05.02"]
[Round "-"]
[White "winerum"]
[Black "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[Opening "Sicilian: Nimzovich-Rossolimo attack (without ...d6)"]
[ECO "B30"]
[NIC "SI.31"]
[Time "22:59:49"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 bxc6 5. O-O d5 6. d3 Bg4 7. Nbd2 e6 8. c3 Bxf3 9. Nxf3 Qa5 10. c4 Nf6 11. e5 Nd7 12. Bd2 Qc7 13. Qe1 g6 14. Qe2 Bg7 15. Rfe1 O-O 16. cxd5 cxd5 17. Rac1 a5 18. d4 Rfb8 19. Rc2 c4 20. b3 Nb6 21. b4 axb4 22. Bxb4 Nc8 23. Qd2 Na7 24. Bd6 Qb6 25. Bxb8 Rxb8 26. Qe3 Nc6 27. a4 Qa7 28. Ra1 Rb4 29. Qd2 Rb3 30. a5 Rd3 31. Qxd3 cxd3 32. Rxc6 Bh6 33. Rb6 d2 34. Rbb1 Qa6 35. Rd1 Bf8 36. Rdb1 d1=Q+ 37. Rxd1 Bb4 38. Rdc1 Kg7 39. h3 h6 40. Rcb1 Bxa5 41. Rb4 {Black resigns} 1-0

Chess Tournament Results

To Be Or Not To Be Decided

Even though my poll results were disappointing I have decided to renew my domain name, http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com, for another year. I'm not sure what I am going to do after that. The reason that I renewed the domain name is because I have several links from different sources pointing to that domain name. I am also going to renew my hosting for another year when it comes due next month. The hosting is reasonable for what I get. I also am starting to look for work as a website builder, webmaster and website administrator. As such, I need samples of my work and the chess site is one of my better sites.

On the survey, I found out that the one "No" vote was one in which Patrick wanted me to keep the site up but use free hosting instead of paid. I decided to stay with paid in spite of Patrick's advice to the contrary.

Chess Site

To Be Or Not To Be Continued

I put a poll on my chess site and got 10 responses to it so far. One vote was my own to test the poll to make sure that it worked properly. Also, I thought that my "Yes" vote would encourage others to vote "Yes". I got 5 votes for "I don't care", 4 for "Yes" (including my own vote) and one "No" vote. I have no way of knowing if anyone voted more than once. What strikes me as being odd is that someone would take the time to vote in my poll if he or she really does not care whether I keep the site up or not! Why vote if you really don't care about my site? I have until December third to make a decision on this site. If the majority of my site visitors don't care if I keep the site up then why should I go through the small expense of renewing my domain name and paying to host the site for another year? Because I am thinking about looking for a job as a webmaster or site administrator I need to keep a few of my sites up to show as samples of my work. The chess site has the most original content of any of my sites and the best traffic ranking. So, this would be a good site to show as a sample site. Also, analyzing my games for this site can help me to improve my play. Still. I have to wonder why I would want to give away my best moves and analysis for free to people who don't care about it!

You can visit my chess site at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com.

Chess

To Be Or Not To Be

No, I am not Shakespeare nor am I contemplating suicide. My domain name registration and hosting for my chess site located at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com are coming up for renewal in December. I need to decide between now and then if I want to renew the web site and keep it on the Internet or just let it die. To be honest, I have gotten discouraged lately and am leaning toward removing all of my sites from the Internet. None of my sites have earned any real money and I have gotten tired of losing money on web site hosting and domain name registration! On the chess site I have links for books that people can buy from Amazon.com and Google AdSense ads. So far, I have earned a whopping $13 from Amazon and it has taken me almost two years to earn less than $50 from AdSense! At 4 to 7 cents per click it will take me forever to get to the $100 minimum to get a check from Google!

To add to my discouragement I put a button on my home page asking people to donate to my site to help me cover the costs of keeping the site up. So far, I have yet to receive even ten cents from anyone! To make matters worse, I put a poll on my site asking people to tell me what incentive they want to donate. I have yet to get one person to answer my poll question! I am going to change the poll to ask if I should keep the site up or take it down. If no one answers that poll question then I may very well take that site down. If I do leave it up, it will be because I want to use it as an example of my work while seeking a job as a webmaster. If you want to help me out by answering my new poll question you can go to http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/Poll.php and answer my question. I would appreciate the input.

Chess

Mike Serovey Draws rayz With the Sicilian Defense

Posted below is the PGN format of my draw against rayz, a player at ICC. The complete game, with analysis and diagrams can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/Rayz-Sicilian.html. I plan to post more of my correspondence games on the site and this blog over the next couple of weeks.

[Event "ICC correspondence 2006Quad.30.09"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.08.05"]
[Round "-"]
[White "rayz"]
[Black "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ICCResult "Game drawn by mutual agreement"]
[Opening "Sicilian defense"]
[ECO "B44"]
[NIC "SI.39"]
[Time "21:08:44"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e6 5. Bc4 Nf6 6. f3 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 Qa5 8. Nb3 Bxd2+ 9. N1xd2 Qb4 10. Qe2 O-O 11. O-O-O d5 12. exd5 exd5 13. Bd3 Be6 14. g4 Nxg4 15. Rdg1 Nge5 16. Bb5 Rfc8 17. a3 Qd6 18. Bxc6 Nxc6 19. h4 Qe5 20. Qf2 b5 21. Rg5 Qf6 22. Rhg1 g6 23. h5 b4 24. hxg6 hxg6 25. a4 Bf5 26. Qh4 d4 27. Rxg6+ Qxg6 28. Rxg6+ fxg6 29. Nxd4 Nxd4 30. Qxd4 Rxc2+ 31. Kd1 Rcc8 32. Qxb4 a5 33. Qb3+ Kh7 34. Qf7+ Kh6 35. Ne4 Bxe4 36. fxe4 Re8 37. Qf4+ g5 38. Qh2+ Kg6 {Game drawn by mutual agreement} 1/2-1/2
Chess Tournament Results

Mike Serovey Defeats ThreeofSeven

I am guessing that ThreeofSeven is a Star Trek fan (Seven of Nine). Anyway, his real name is Dave and he lives in Castle Rock, CO. I played the White side of an Engish Opening in a correspondence game at ICC and won. I still have 5 more correspondence games going at ICC and I am also playing a thematic tournament by email. I will post those results as they come in.

Here is the game against ThreeofSeven in PGN format.

[Event "ICC correspondence 2006Quad.30.06"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.08.05"]
[Round "-"]
[White "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Black "ThreeofSeven"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[Opening "English opening"]
[ECO "A21"]
[NIC "EO.22"]
[Time "21:08:43"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 d6 3. g3 Bd7 4. Bg2 Bc6 5. e4 Nf6 6. Nge2 Be7 7. O-O O-O 8. d3 Nbd7 9. h3 Nc5 10. b4 Ne6 11. Nd5 Bd7 12. f4 c6 13. Nxe7+ Qxe7 14. f5 Nc7 15. g4 h6 16. Ng3 c5 17. b5 b6 18. g5 hxg5 19. Bxg5 a6 20. Nh5 Nce8 21. a4 axb5 22. cxb5 g6 23. Nxf6+ Nxf6 24. Qe1 Kg7 25. fxg6 fxg6 26. Qh4 {Black resigns} 1-0

You can view this game, with analysis and diagrams, at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/ThreeofSeven-English.html
chess tournament results

Labor Day Weekend

It is Labor Day in the United States of America. Most state chess associations have their state championships this weekend. I am not playing this year, mostly for financial reasons. I live about an hour away from where the tournament is being held and simply was not willing to drive back and forth 3 days in a row. Staying in the hotel where the tournament is being held, the Radisson, would cost me $98 a night for a room by myself! If I had been able to ride with someone from my area and share a room with him, then the trip would have been affordable.

Even so, I did manage to go yesterday to watch. While there I got to play skittles with a couple of people, watch some people play over and analyze their games, and I also got to talk briefly with some old friends and acquaintances. One of these people was Eric Buel, a guy that was part of my high school chess team. I hadn't seen Eric in almost 20 years and yet he recognized me and called me over to talk to him. I got his home number and email address. However, I missed Mike Mason and had to settle for leaving a message for him at his hotel room. Over all, I had a good time yesterday.

Today I am working on my chess site. Here is a game that I played online recently and just posted to my chess site at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/Yacc-Sicilian.html. This is a game against a chess computer called yacc. I looked lost at a couple of points in that game but managed to come back and win.

[Event "ICC 20 20"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.07.22"]
[Round "-"]
[White "yacc"]
[Black "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ICCResult "White checkmated"]
[WhiteElo "1503"]
[BlackElo "1542"]
[Opening "Sicilian: Alapin's variation (2.c3)"]
[ECO "B22"]
[NIC "SI.46"]
[Time "18:38:11"]
[TimeControl "1200+20"]

1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. cxd4 d5 5. exd5 Qxd5 6. Nf3 Bg4 7. Be2 Rd8
8. Nc3 Qa5 9. Be3 Nf6 10. Qb3 b6 11. O-O-O e6 12. Qc4 Nb4 13. Qb5+ Qxb5 14.Bxb5+ Nd7 15. Rhg1 Bd6 16. Kb1 O-O 17. Bg5 f6 18. h3 Bh5 19. Be3 a6 20. Ne4 Be7 21. Bc4 Bf7 22. Ka1 b5 23. Bb3 Nb6 24. Nc5 N6d5 25. g4 a5 26. h4 a4 27. Bxd5 Nxd5 28. Rd3 Nxe3 29. Rxe3 e5 30. Rc1 exd4 31. Rxe7 d3 32. Nd2 Rd4 33. Nce4 Bc4 34. f4 f5 35. gxf5 Rxf5 36. Rg1 g6 37. Ng5 Rfxf4 38. Nxh7 Rxh4 39. Rxg6+ Kh8 40. Rgg7 Rh1+ 41. Rg1 Rxg1+ 42. Nb1 d2 43. Re8+ Kxh7 44. b3 axb3 45. axb3 Bxb3 46. Re5 d1=Q 47. Re7+ Rg7 48. Rxg7+ Kxg7 49. Kb2 Qc2+ 50. Ka1 Ra4+ 51. Na3 Rxa3# {White checkmated} 0-1

chess

Mike Serovey Defeats BachInBlack

Here is the PGN formatted game I played on ICC against a chess computer known as BachInBlack. The program outplayed me in the opening and won a Rook for a Bishop, and then walked into a Knight fork on its King and Queen! The entire game, with analysis and diagrams can be found here: http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/BachInBlack-English.html.

[Event "ICC 15 5"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.07.20"]
[Round "-"]
[White "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Black "BachInBlack"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black checkmated"]
[WhiteElo "1534"]
[BlackElo "1375"]
[Opening "English opening"]
[ECO "A10"]
[NIC "EO.64"]
[Time "16:36:10"]
[TimeControl "900+5"]

1. c4 d5 2. cxd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd4 4. Nf3 Qd8 5. g3 Bf5 6. Bg2 Nc6 7. d3 e5 8.
O-O Nf6 9. Bg5 Bc5 10. a3 O-O 11. b4 Bb6 12. Nh4 Be6 13. Ne4 Bd4 14. Bxf6
gxf6 15. Nc5 Bxa1 16. Qxa1 Nd4 17. Qb2 Bg4 18. Nf3 Nxf3+ 19. exf3 Bc8 20.
Rd1 Qd5 21. f4 Qd6 22. fxe5 fxe5 23. d4 Rb8 24. Ne4 Qd5 25. Nf6+ Kg7 26.
Nxd5 Bg4 27. Re1 c6 28. Ne3 h5 29. Nxg4 hxg4 30. dxe5 Rbd8 31. e6+ Kg6 32.
e7 Rfe8 33. Be4+ f5 34. Bb1 Rd5 35. Ba2 Rd3 36. Qe2 Rxa3 37. Qe6+ Kg5 38.
Qg8+ Rxg8 39. Bxg8 a5 40. e8=Q axb4 41. Qe7+ Kg6 42. Qf7+ Kg5 43. Re5 Ra1+ 44. Kg2 b3 45. Rxf5+ Kh6 46. Qh5+ Kg7 47. Qh7# {Black checkmated} 1-0
chess

Random Thoughts About Chess

I have decided to give a brief update on my chess activities as of late and to reminisce about the "good old days" of chess for me. I have just started another correspondence tournament at ICC and still have one old game going from last month. I have been playing too quickly in some of my games and it has hurt me greatly. I am still not considering all of my opponents possible replies at critical points in the games and thus lose or find myself fighting for a draw! This has gotten rather old. Sometimes I get outplayed in the openings because I get caught in lines that I don't know or haven't played in a while and I forgot what I was supposed to play in those positions. I am going to force myself to slow down in the games that I just started and hope for better results. It is also best not to look at the games when I am tired.

I am playing in a thematic tournament that is also correspondence. In this one, everybody has to play the Colle-Zukertort. The first five moves are given and forced. Play picks up on Black's move 5. I'm still in the opening in these games so I'm not winning or losing.

I have a book on the Colle, to include the Colle-Zukertort, so I have some help here. I plan on buying a copy of Modern Chess Openings 14th Edition (MCO 14) from Amazon.com soon and to use it to help me avoid opening traps in my correspondence games.

Now for the good old days. I started playing chess with my little brother back in the 1970's. We didn't know all of the rules back then so we both played some illegal moves. In 1974 I joined the Plant High School Chess Club and team. I joined mainly to get good enough to beat my little brother and got hooked on competitive play. I loved competing against other schools in matches and tournaments. At the time I joined the club and team, Plant High School was the reigning champs of the Southeastern United States (Region 4). I went to the Region 4 championship in my senior year (I believe that was Spring of 1976) and did OK. I played in the Under 1400 section and we won it. I played in the Under 1400 section at National High School and did OK. I believe that I got an even score in that tournament.

I continued playing chess off and on through the eighties and nineties and now I play mostly online because it is cheaper. When I got out of the US Army in 1986 there were tournaments in Tampa almost every month. So, I played in most of them and kept my skills up. After meeting Tom Stiers I helped him run some tournaments in the Brandon, FL area. Now, there are no tournaments in the Tampa and Brandon areas that I know of. There are some players who are interested in forming a club, but we need a place to meet. I really do miss being part of a team and I also miss running tournaments. I have found that lately I cannot play in any tournaments that I am also directing because it is just too much work for me.

chess

My Win against CDGuyHall

I have been playing correspondence chess online at ICC and have finished all but one game. I may end up losing that last game but I am playing on anyways. Here is my only win from the latest ICC correspondence games.

[Event "ICC correspondence 2006SC18QF.02.18"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.05.02"]
[Round "-"]
[White "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Black "CDGuyHall"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[Opening "English, Kramnik-Shirov counterattack"]
[ECO "A21"]
[NIC "EO.23"]
[Time "22:59:49"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Bb4 3. a3 Bxc3 4. bxc3 Nc6 5. d4 d5 6. e3 e4 7. cxd5 Qxd5 8.
c4 Qg5 9. f4 exf3 10. Nxf3 Qd8 11. Be2 Nf6 12. O-O Ne4 13. Qc2 Bf5 14. Bd3
Qe7 15. d5 Ne5 16. Nxe5 Qxe5 17. Bb2 Qe7 18. Rxf5 {Black resigns} 1-0

This was a rather quick win for me because Black blundered on move 15 and allowed me to win a piece. At the point where Black resigned he had all kinds of material hanging. You can view the complete game, with diagrams and analysis at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/GuyHall-English.html.
chess tournament results

My Game with Houle

ICC has tournaments that run every Tuesday night for 4 weeks. I entered the one for July and took a bye in Round 1 becuse it was on July 4 and I wanted to watch the fireworks. I lost Round 2 becuse I played too quickly at critical points in the game. Round 3 was played on July 18, 2006. I got disconnected from the ICC server almost imediately after Black completed move 22. The interface that I use to play on ICC is BlitzIn 2.5. I heard "Uh oh" and noticed that my timer was no longer counting down. I saw a message that said that my opponent was inactive so I incorrectly assumed the he was the one who got disconnected and waited about 20 minutes for him to reconnect. Eventually, I discovered that I was disconnected from the ICC server and reconnected. I tried to finish the game but was unable to. One of the problems was that I had BlitzIn set to count a disconnect as a forfiet loss. I got an email from the server that told me that I had lost on forfeit after I had claimed a win by mistake! I changed my settings so that disconnects no longer counts as losses. I also notified the ICC tournament director about my mistake. I am still hoping that my opponent will allow me to finsh this game because I hate to lose on a technical problem! I have a cable modem so my Internet connection is always on when I have my computer on! Here is the game score:

[Event "ICC 60 0"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.07.18"]
[Round "-"]
[White "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Black "Houle"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ICCResult "White got disconnected and forfeits"]
[WhiteElo "1549"]
[BlackElo "1574"]
[Opening "English: Sicilian reversed"]
[ECO "A25"]
[NIC "EO.20"]
[Time "20:13:47"]
[TimeControl "3600+0"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 f5 4. Bg2 Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. e4 Be6 7. Nd5 h6 8. Ne2
fxe4 9. dxe4 Be7 10. O-O O-O 11. f4 Na5 12. b3 c6 13. Nxf6+ Bxf6 14. f5 Bf7
15. Ba3 Be7 16. g4 b5 17. cxb5 cxb5 18. Qd2 Qb6+ 19. Kh1 Rab8 20. Rfd1 b4
21. Bc1 Rfd8 22. Qe3 Qb7 {White got disconnected and forfeits} 0-1

This game, complete with my analysis and diagrams can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/Houle-English.html.
chess tournament results

Mike Serovey Loses To Alex Colins Playing The Pirc Defense

I am continuing to lose games that I could have won or drawn! I'm still moving too fast at certain points in the game. The complete game, with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/Alex-Colins-Pirc.html. If this losing streak continues I will not play in any big money tournaments until I start winning more consistently.

Here is the game in PGN format:

[Event "ICC 60 0"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.07.11"]
[Round "2"]
[White "alexcolins"]
[Black "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1807"]
[BlackElo "1555"]
[Opening "Pirc: classical, h3 system"]
[ECO "B08"]
[NIC "PU.10"]
[Time "20:00:16"]
[TimeControl "3600+0"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Nc3 d6 4. e4 Bg7 5. h3 O-O 6. Be3 c5 7. dxc5 dxc5 8.
Qxd8 Rxd8 9. Bxc5 Nc6 10. Bd3 b6 11. Be3 Bb7 12. O-O-O e6 13. Rhe1 Rac8 14.
Bg5 Re8 15. Bb5 h6 16. Bh4 a6 17. Ba4 b5 18. Bb3 Na5 19. e5 Nh7 20. Kb1 Nxb3
21. axb3 g5 22. Bg3 Red8 23. Rd6 Bf8 24. Rxd8 Rxd8 25. Rd1 Rxd1+ 26. Nxd1
Bg7 27. Ne1 Nf8 28. Ne3 Nd7 29. Nd3 Be4 30. f4 gxf4 31. Bxf4 Bxd3 32. cxd3
Nxe5 33. Bxe5 Bxe5 34. Kc2 f5 35. Nf1 h5 36. Nd2 Kg7 37. Nf3 Bf6 38. d4 Kf7
39. Kc3 Be7 40. Kd3 Kf6 41. Ne5 Bd6 42. Nd7+ Kg5 43. Nc5 Bxc5 44. dxc5 Kf6
45. Kc3 e5 46. Kd3 Ke6 47. b4 Kd5 48. b3 Kc6 49. g3 Kd5 50. Ke3 Kc6 51. Kf3
Kd5 52. g4 fxg4+ 53. hxg4 hxg4+ 54. Kxg4 e4 55. Kf4 e3 56. Kxe3 Ke5 57. Ke2
Kd5 58. Kf3 Ke5 59. Kg4 Ke6 60. Kf4 Kd5 61. Kf5 Kc6 62. Ke6 Kc7 63. Kd5 Kd7
64. c6+ Kc7 65. Kc5 {Black resigns} 1-0

Boylston Chess Club Weblog: Other Chess Blogs

This chess blog is listed at the Boylston Chess Club's blog. So, I decided to return the favor and post a link to them in my chess blog. Also, this link will give you a pretty thorough list of other chess blogs that you may want to visit!

Boylston Chess Club Weblog: Other Chess Blogs

My Loss To Tom Stiers

I have updated my chess site and have posted a game that I played back in May of 1991 against USCF Life Master Tom Stiers. The game only went 14 moves and Tom seemed annoyed with me for making him play it out that far! He wanted me to resign on move one! The game, complete with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/Tom-Stiers-English.html.

Here is the game in PGN:

[Event "S.C.C. Action"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1991.05.03"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Tom Stiers"]
[Black "Mike Serovey"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. c4 e5 2. g3 h5 3. h4 d6 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. d3 Be6 7. Nd5 Be7
8. Nxe7 Qxe7 9. Bg5 O-O-O 10. Qa4 Bd7 11. b4 a6 12. b5 axb5 13. Qa8+ Nb8
14. Bxb7# 1-0

I may have found a way that I can afford to play in the 14th Annual Southern Open, but will not know for sure for a couple more weeks.If I have to miss that one I still should be able to play in the state championship Labor Day weekend.
chess tournament results

I Have Updated My Chess Site

I have updated several of the pages at my chess site which is located at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com. The pages are my game with Dante Benez played on 17 November 1985, my Benoni Defense page, my Blackmar-Diemer Gambit page, my English Opening page, my French Defense page, my Gedult-Gunderam page, my Grob Attack page, and my Italian Game page. I have also added my loss to Stuart S. Finney playing the White side of the French Defense. In time I will be adding more games form OTB play as well as some correspondence games and some ICC games. I also have other web sites that I need to be working on, so I don't have all day to spend on chess. Maybe someday I will be able to become a professional chess player!

I got a card in the mail a few days ago that is advertising the 14th annual Southern Open. It is in Altamonte Springs, near Orlando, and is about an hour drive from here. I am hoping that I can catch a ride with someone who lives near me and share a room with him. The room rate is $79 a night whether it has one person in it or four. That would make the trip affordable for me. Otherwise, I plan to take half point byes in the first two rounds and drive back and forth both days. Gas is still cheaper than staying one night in a hotel room by myself! Or, I may take the byes in the morning rounds so that I can sleep in a little before i have to drive there.

chess site update

Upcoming Tournaments

Besides the monthly tornadoes in St. Pete and Orlando, the June 2006 issue of Chess Life lists two tournaments in my area that I would like to play in. They are The 14th Annual Southern Open and Florida State Chess Championship. The first one is August 4 through 6 and the second one is September 1 through 4. There are several side events at the Florida Championship that I would be interested in as well. However, I probably won't make it to either one because they are rather expensive to play in. I live about half way between St. Pete and Orlando so both drives are about one hour for me. Factor in gas at about $3 a gallon and that can be expensive to drive back and forth for 3 or 4 days at each event. Then, there is the wear and tear on both my car and me. Fatigue has been a problem for me in past tournaments so driving back and forth every day would probably kill my chances of winning any money in the Under 1600 sections. Staying in the hotels where the events are being held would reduce the fatigue factor but cost even more than driving would! It sucks that there are no tournaments anywhere close to where I live! There is no club anywhere close to where I live either. The closest club that I know of is in St. Pete.

Back in 1986, right after getting out of the US Army, I played in the state championship and won the Under 1600 section with a perfect 6-0 score! That was part of and 8 game winning streak that I have not been able to duplicate ever since! I played in the state championship once since then and did rather poorly. That event put my rating below 1600 and I have been below 1600 ever since!

I played in the Southern Open a couple of years ago and lost every game that I played! My only point came from a bye! Again, fatigue was a factor. I stayed in a hotel room by myself, but it was about a mile from where we were playing so resting between rounds was sometimes a problem. Also, I had trouble sleeping at night because I was used to staying up half the night. I still haven't posted those games from the Southern Open to my chess site.

For several years I have wanted to play in the World Open or some other really big money tournament. Again, cost was the main reason why I have yet to play in them. I have wanted to become a professional chess player for over 20 years now but I am not good enough and simply cannot earn enough money to go pro any time soon.

Back in my Senior year of high school I played in both the Southeastern (Region 4) High School Championship and the National High School Championship. I played in the Under 1400 sections of both championships. I liked the excitement of playing in a really big tournament and of being part of a team. I miss both now!

chess tournament advice

Why Do I Lose So Many Chess Games?!?

by Mike Serovey

Have you ever asked yourself that question while having a bad tournament? I can remember when I was still in high school I was playing a tournament and my chess team coach, Mr. Anthony Paul Stone, said that playing over a game that I just lost will depress me and make it more likely that I will continue to lose. Was he right? I don't know. Sometimes this is true and sometimes I really need to play over a lost game before the next round so that I can avoid repeating my mistake later in in that tournament.

One of the things that has hurt me for several years is fatigue. When I have to stay in a motel or hotel I don't sleep as well as I usually do at home. Also, the excitement of playing in a tournament can make it hard for me to sleep! To make things worse, I can remember playing a tournament in Jacksonville, FL where I had to share a room with about my entire chess team! I slept on two chairs next to the air conditioner! I bombed out in that tournament.

At other tournaments I shared a room with a USCF life master named Tom Stiers. Tom used to talk, and even scream, in his sleep. I have no idea if he still does this now. I would be startled out of a sound sleep several times a night by his talking or screaming! Tom used to hate to play against Igor Ivanov because Tom has yet to beat, or even draw Igor! I can still remember him screaming about having to play Igor the next day. I read in Chess Life that Igor had died, so Tom will not get his rematch. Is it any wonder that I was often fatigued after a day or so of stuff like this?

Someone commented on his web site that most of the games on mine were games that I had played online at ICC. He is correct. The interface that I use to play at ICC is BlitzIn 2.5. BlitzIn allows me to save all of my games in PGN format. That makes it really easy for me to post my games on my site. With over the board games, I have to type out the game score and check for mistakes in notation before I can put the notation on my web site. I have been too lazy, and busy, to do all of that work. However, I do plan to put these games on my site, eventually.

I have noticed that one of the things that has caused me to lose online and correspondence games is impatience! Even in correspondence games I fail to take the time needed to look at all of my opponents possible replies to my moves! I have posted two short games below that I recently finished. Both are from a correspondence tournament and in both I failed to look at all of my opponents' possible moves.

[Event "ICC correspondence 2006SC18QF.02.17"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.05.02"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Fegary"]
[Black "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black checkmated"]
[Opening "Sicilian: chameleon variation"]
[ECO "B23"]
[NIC "SI.44"]
[Time "22:59:49"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Nge2 d6 4. Nf4 e5 5. Nfd5 Nge7 6. Bc4 g6 7. Nf6#
{Black checkmated}
1-0

I just walked into a checkmate here! I failed to look at any knight move for White except Nxe7. Oh, well!

[Event "ICC correspondence 2006SC18QF.02.08"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.05.02"]
[Round "-"]
[White "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Black "pokerram"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ICCResult "White resigns"]
[Opening "English opening"]
[ECO "A16"]
[NIC "EO.64"]
[Time "22:59:49"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. e4 c5 6. e5 Nh5 7. f4 d6 8. exd6
exd6 9. Nge2 Nf6 10. O-O Nc6 11. d4 cxd4 12. Nxd4 Ng4 13. Nxc6 bxc6 14. Bxc6
Qb6+ {White resigns} 0-1

I resigned here because I was going to lose my bishop and the only way out of checkmate was to give up my queen to a discovered check. I thought that 14. Bxc6 was a winning move! It turned out to be a losing blunder because I failed to consider any queen moves for Black!

The moral of the story for me is to get plenty of rest both before and during a chess tournament and to take my time while playing! It is better for me to lose on time forfeit than to continue to blunder away pieces or to walk into a checkmate!

Another Loss to SlowMoe

Posted below is another one of my games against SlowMoe, a computer program at ICC. It is a loss and is posted in PGN format. The entire game, with diagrams and analysis can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/SlowMoe-English.html

[Event "ICC 20 20"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2005.02.19"]
[Round "-"]
[White "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Black "SlowMoe"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ICCResult "White resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1585"]
[BlackElo "1760"]
[Opening "English: symmetrical variation"]
[ECO "A16"]
[NIC "EO.64"]
[Time "18:31:26"]
[TimeControl "1200+20"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 c5 3. g3 e6 4. Bg2 d5 5. d3 dxc4 6. dxc4 Qxd1+ 7. Nxd1 e5
8. b3 e4 9. e3 Be6 10. Bb2 Nbd7 11. Nc3 Bf5 12. Nge2 O-O-O 13. O-O Be7 14.
Rfd1 Rhe8 15. Nf4 Nb6 16. Ncd5 Nbxd5 17. Nxd5 Nxd5 18. Rxd5 g6 19. Rad1 Rxd5
20. cxd5 Bd6 21. h3 Kc7 22. g4 Bc8 23. Rc1 f5 24. gxf5 Bxf5 25. b4 Kb6 26.
bxc5+ Bxc5 27. Rc4 Bd6 28. Bd4+ Kb5 29. Bf1 Ka5 30. Bxa7 Re5 31. Bd4 Rxd5
32. a4 g5 33. Bc3+ Kb6 34. a5+ Ka7 35. Bd4+ Ka8 36. Bb6 Be5 37. Bg2 Rd1+ 38.
Bf1 Bxh3 {White resigns} 0-1

I do have some wins against SlowMoe that can also be found on my chess site.

My Google Page Rank (PR) For My Chess Site

The home page for my chess site located at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com now has a Google PR of 4. Most of my main pages have a PR of 3. Most of my individual game pages only have a PR of 0. It seems that most of the other sites out there, especially chess sites, are linking to my main page only. That would explain why my main page has the highest PR of any page on my site. It seems that I need to improve my internal linking a little bit to get my other pages to rank a little higher. Also, I need to get some other sites and directories to link to some of my internal pages too. This is important because the higher a page ranks in PR the better the chances are that that page will also rank highly for the relevant keywords that are on that page. I want my pages to be found by those people who are looking for my content! So, if any of you web masters out there have been reluctant to link to my site because of low PR now you should be willing to link to my site because I now have decent PR for my home page!

I have been trying to earn enough money from this site to cover the costs involved in keeping the site up on the Internet. These include things like domain name registration and hosting. Although I have managed to keep these costs low, they are not entirely free! I have a link on my page asking people to donate if they are getting anything out of my site. So far, not one person has! So, either my site is not helping anyone or the people who visit my site are too cheap to help me out with even $5! This leaves me wondering why I even bother to keep the site updated! My hosting and domain name registration are both coming up for renewal in December of 2006. Should I bother to renew both or not? I did manage to get $13 in commissions from Amazon.com. So, some people are clicking on my Amazon links and ordering things. Unfortunately, the commissions from Amazon are so low that it took me over 1 year just to earn that measly $13! Again, this leaves me to wonder why I even bother!

The problem with spammers has also left me wondering why I even bother to have this site if all I get are spammers abusing it! It would be nice if I got some encouragement to keep this site up and and a little financial help to cover the costs of doing this. I'm thinking about offering some kind of incentive to get people to donate $5.00 each. What would people like? I have a few chess ebooks I could offer or a few GM games in PGN format. I am also thinking about rewriting a study I did several years ago on how chess players think. Although it may not be as extensive as Think Like A Grand Master, it should still prove valuable enough to be worth a $5.00 donation. I am thinking about adding a survey to my site asking people about this and to tell me what they want as an incentive. I am also hoping that I can get some real comments from people on this blog telling me what they want as an incentive. Come on people, help me out here!

Thanks,

Mike Serovey

Stop Spamming My Chess site & Blog!

I can't remember when I first set up my chess site at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com but since then I have managed to get the site, and most of its pages, listed with the various search engines. I tried a chat room and forum but found that nobody was using them and thus removed them. I had a blog on my site with articles arranged by topic and some people had posted comments to my blog. Unfortunately, some of those comments were spam and I selectively deleted them. Then, my hosting company had their server crash and my blog get messed up. I was unable to restore the blog so I move it to blogger.com hoping that I would not have the problem of my posts getting lost like that again. Still, several hours of work got lost.

Now, I have found a new problem. I had a guest book on my site but removed it because of the spam posts on it. I could not selectively delete posts from the guest book, so I just removed the entire thing! Here is what I posted on my chess site about the problem.

NOTE: I have removed my guest book because of the number of people who have made spam posts to it. When I last checked, I went from about 10 posts that were real comments or questions to 2752 entries! All but about 15 of these entries were spam posts! I had people from about 30 different countries spamming my guest book! I guess that is the price that I pay for being semi-successful online! Some of these jackasses actually went as far as to try to put an entire spam webpage into the little guest book area! Others would say things like, "Nice site. I will bookmark it" and then post about 30 links to sites that have nothing to with with chess or hobbies in general. I do not want people posting links to sites selling Viagra, pornography or gambling on my chess site!!!

If people wish to contact me and give me feedback, or request a link exchange, they will have to go to the "Contact Me" page on my site located at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/contact.shtml I have removed my unlisted telephone number from that page because of calls from telemarketers! However, you can still click on the email link to send me a message. I do NOT check my email every day but will get back to you when I finally do notice and read your email.

I do plan to put a forum or bulletin board back on my site, but only if certain conditions are met. They are: 1) The software must allow me to require everybody to register before they can make posts; 2) I must be allowed to delete spam posts!; 3) If someone makes a spam post he/she will be warned once, after that the person will lose his/her membership to the forum if he/she makes any more spam posts!; and 4) I must be able to edit posts to remove obscene language, racist comments and other offensive material.

What I would like is for other people, not just me, to be able to post games to the forum and then get feedback and analysis from other forum members. I would like to build a chess community if I could. Again, if spam becomes a real problem then I will shut this forum down for good. I will also need to make sure that I have all of the required legal disclaimers on the forum.