My Hugpage on Chess

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.

Mike Serovey Draws Eric Lang

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

ICC and Me

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.

Mike Serovey Draws Slowstar9

Here is the last game I started in 2007. It is one of the games I played at Stan's Net Chess. Although the game started off as a Benko's opening I tried to transpose into a Catalan. It didn't work because my opponent steered us into Indian lines and we ended up transposing into an off line of the Bogo Indian defense. I went up 2 passed pawns and had to settle for a draw because I left weaknesses around my King that allowed the Black Queen to check my King. Black had a draw by perpetual check. Any attempts to get out of this would lead to a bad position for White. The complete game, with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/Slowstar9-Benkos-Opening.html. Here is the game in PGN.

[Event "Game 415561"]
[Site "Stan's NetChess"]
[Date "2007.11.29"]
[Round "?"]
[White "mserovey"]
[Black "slowstar9"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1. g3 e6 2. Bg2 d5 3. c4 Nf6 4. d4 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Bxd2+ 6. Qxd2 O-O 7. Nf3 dxc4 8.a4 Ne4 9. Qe3 Nd6 10. O-O Nc6 11. Na3 Nb4 12. Rfc1 a6 13. Nxc4 Nxc4 14. Rxc4 a515. Qc3 Nd5 16. Qc1 c6 17. e3 f6 18. Ne1 b6 19. Rxc6 Bd7 20. Rd6 Qe7 21. Rxd5exd5 22. Bxd5+ Kh8 23. Bxa8 Rxa8 24. Qc7 Rc8 25. Qxb6 Qe4 26. b4 axb4 27. Qxb4Bc6 28. f3 Qxe3+ 29. Kg2 1/2-1/2

Mike Serovey Defeats Sean McKinney

This is the last of my correspondence chess games played at ICC. It was this game, and 3 others like it, that caused me to decide not to play anymore correspondence chess games at ICC. This is the fourth game that I should have won on time forfeit and the fourth time that my opponent got off with just a warning and extra time to play the game! I believe that is cheating and I am not going to put up with it anymore! My opponent's rating at the start of this game was 1590 and it dropped to 1541 by the end of this game. Mine went up to 1595, only 6 rating points away from reaching my goal of going over 1600 rating points! I need one more win and no losses to reach my goal. However, if I continue to play correspondence chess games at ICC I am going to continue to have this problem of people getting away with cheating!

I got outplayed in the opening and went down the exchange and 2 pawns. Then a few moves later my opponent gave back the material. Then I blundered away 3 pawns only to have White return them in a sacrifice. I managed to win the endgame and White resigned. This game is one of the few times that I have won playing the Black side of the Réti. The complete game, with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/az2112-Reti.html. Here is the game in PGN. My record in this section is 2 wins and 4 losses.

[Event "ICC correspondence 2007Seven.02.21"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.08.25"]
[Round "-"]
[White "az2112"]
[Black "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ICCResult "White resigns"]
[Opening "Réti: King's Indian attack"]
[ECO "A05"]
[NIC "EO.26"]
[Time "18:02:54"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. O-O O-O 5. c4 c5 6. d4 cxd4 7. Nxd4 Nc6 8.Nc3 a6 9. c5 Ne8 10. Bxc6 dxc6 11. Nxc6 Qc7 12. Nd5 Qd7 13. Ncxe7+ Kh8 14.Nb6 Qxe7 15. Nxa8 Bh3 16. Re1 Qxc5 17. Be3 Qc6 18. f3 Nf6 19. Rc1 Qe6 20.Bf2 Rxa8 21. Rc7 b5 22. Qc2 Qxa2 23. g4 h5 24. g5 Nd5 25. Rxf7 Be6 26. Qxg6Bxf7 27. Qxf7 Rf8 28. Qxh5+ Kg8 29. g6 Nf6 30. Qh4 Qxb2 31. Bd4 Qc2 32. e4Qd3 33. e5 Qxg6+ {White resigns} 0-1