Chess Opening Wizard

I have the professional version of Chess Opening Wizard and there is an upgrade coming out soon. It features photo learning of chess positions. I don't know how to use photo learning so I probably won't get much out of this new feature. The author, Mike Leahy, has a video that explains it and it can be found at

Links to My Chess Site

I don't remember how but I got signed up for Google Alerts some time ago. They notify me whenever someone posts a link to my chess site. It seems that the page that gets linked to the most often is my beginner's page. It has the basic rules of chess and some diagrams to help out new players. Occasionally, I will find links to other pages.

I do have some recently finished correspondence chess games to post but I haven't felt up to doing that lately. For most of this week I have had mild to moderate headaches. I'm told that I don't have allergies but I still have allergy symptoms and I think that these are sinus headaches. Maybe this weekend I will feel up to updating this blog and my chess site but there are no guarantees on that.

Mike Serovey Defeats Sean McKinney Again

I just added another win against Sean McKinney to me chess site. The game can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/SeanMcKinney-English.html. This game started off as a symmetrical variation and then ended up as a Botvinnik system. The final position was one in whch I forced the exchange of queens leaving two Black pawns en prise. This win raised my ICC correspondence chess rating to 1709 getting me over 1700 for the first time. My record for ICC correspondence chess games is 23-14-8. Here is the game in PGN.

[Event "ICC correspondence 2009Class.01.08"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2009.02.26"]
[Round "-"]
[White "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Black "az2112"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[Opening "English: symmetrical variation"]
[ECO "A34"]
[NIC "EO.64"]
[Time "19:55:11"]

1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 e6 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. d3 Be7 6. e4 O-O 7. Nge2 b6 8.
O-O Bb7 9. h3 d6 10. Be3 e5 11. Nd5 Nd4 12. Nxe7+ Qxe7 13. Nxd4 cxd4 14. Bg5
h6 15. Bd2 a5 16. f4 Rac8 17. fxe5 dxe5 18. Rf5 Nd7 19. Qg4 Kh8 20. Raf1 Rc6
21. Qf3 Rf6 22. Rxf6 Nxf6 23. Bxh6 Nxe4 24. dxe4 gxh6 25. Qf6+ {Black
resigns} 1-0

English-Opening/Serovey-McKinney.pgn

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My Chess Site Is Back Up Now

My chess site located at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com was down for a few days because I switched hosting companies. I was using the free hosting provided by Go Daddy and then they changed the features offered. They no longer provide FrontPage extensions with the free hosting and I need those extensions in order to make the navigation on my site work. They charge too much for my small site so I switched to hostingrevolution.com because they will let me pay about half of what I would pay at Go Daddy. Also, with paid hosting I no longer have those annoying ads at the top of every page. I have several games in progress and will be adding new games in the near future.

Mike Serovey Defeats AntonioMendonca Again

Here is my game with Black against Antonio Mendonca Silveira. This win puts my ICC correspondence chess rating at 1698. My record at ICC is 22-14-8. This makes me 5.5-0.5 in this Quad, which should be clear first place. This game, complete with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/AntonioMendonca-Sicilian.html. Here is the game in PGN.

[Event "ICC correspondence 2008Quad.08.03"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2008.08.10"]
[Round "-"]
[White "AntonioMendonca"]
[Black "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ICCResult "White resigns"]
[Opening "Sicilian defense"]
[ECO "B33"]
[NIC "SI.34"]
[Time "19:53:04"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. e5 Nd5
8. Ne4 Qc7 9. f4 Qb6 10. c4 Ne3 11. Qd3 Bb4+ 12. Bd2 Rb8 13. b3 O-O 14. Bxb4
Qxb4+ 15. Kf2 Ng4+ 16. Ke2 f5 17. Nd6 Qc5 18. Qf3 Nxe5 19. Qe3 Qxd6 20. Qxe5
Qxe5+ 21. fxe5 c5 22. Ke3 f4+ 23. Kf2 Bb7 24. Rg1 Rbd8 25. Rd1 Rf5 26. Rd6
Rxe5 27. Be2 Kf7 28. Rgd1 Ke7 29. Bg4 h6 30. h4 g6 31. R1d2 g5 32. h5 Bc8
33. Rd1 Re8 34. R1d2 Re3 {White resigns} 0-1

Sicilian-Defense/AntonioMendonca-Sicilian.pgn

My Chess Goals for 2008 - 2009

Today is the first day of 2009. Looking back on 2008 I realize that I made some of my goals while missing others. I got my correspondence chess rating at ICC over 1600 but missed 1700 by 2 points! My standard rating is still somewhere in the 1500's so I missed my goal of getting that one over 1600. The main reason is because I haven't really played any standard games at ICC this past year. I don't remember playing in any regular USCF rated tournaments last year. If I did it was only one. My rating at Stan's Net Chess is still over 2200 but nowhere near 2300. I have one game in progress there but winning it will not put me over 2300.

My goals for 2009 are to get my correspondence chess rating at ICC over 1700, my standard rating over 1600 and my rating at Stan's Net Chess over 2300. If I play in any regular USCF rated tournaments I want to get that rating over 1600 and pick up at least one class prize while doing it.