Mike Serovey Loses To HaraldP

I am getting tired of posting loses to this blog and my chess site! This is yet another game in which I resigned when I had an OK position! I outplayed my opponent in the opening and was up two passed pawns at one point. I sacrificed one of those passed pawns when I had a better move and then got surprised by a couple of my opponent's moves. The trick is to stay calm when things look bad and to find the saving move or moves.

I don't know what my win/loss recored is at ICC, but I believe that it is on the minus side and that is what is keeping my rating in the 1500 range. I seem to be doing better at Stan's Net Chess. I very recently submitted two games for adjudication at ICC. I claimed the win on time forfeit in both games and I am waiting for the tournament director to adjudicate the games in my favor. This same opponent is about to overstep the initial time control in my third game with him. This is a habit with him and he keeps getting off with warnings each time he does this! I can only claim the win on time forfeit if he violates the time control twice in a game and that irritates me! In an OTB game he would lose the second he overstepped the time control, so why not in a correspondence game? Whey give anybody a warning, especially when they do it in more than one game?

Anyway, here is the game against HaraldP. The complete game, with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/HaraldP-English.html.

[Event "ICC 30 0"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.08.12"]
[Round "-"]
[White "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Black "HaraldP"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ICCResult "White resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1536"]
[BlackElo "1431"]
[Opening "English opening"]
[ECO "A20"]
[NIC "EO.24"]
[Time "18:03:31"]
[TimeControl "1800+0"]

1. c4 e5 2. g3 Bc5 3. Bg2 h6 4. e3 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Nge2 O-O 7. O-O c6 8. a3a6 9. b4 Ba7 10. d4 exd4 11. exd4 Nbd7 12. Bf4 Bb8 13. d5 c5 14. Na4 b5 15.cxb5 axb5 16. Nac3 cxb4 17. axb4 Rxa1 18. Qxa1 Qb6 19. Be3 Qb7 20. Qa5 Bc721. Qxb5 Qxb5 22. Nxb5 Ba6 23. Nxc7 Bxe2 24. Rb1 Rb8 25. Rb2 Bc4 26. Bf4 Rb627. b5 Rb8 28. Bxd6 Rb7 29. b6 Nxb6 30. Bc5 Ra7 31. Bxb6 Ra1+ {Whiteresigns} 0-1