Mike Serovey Loses to Stephen Crookston

Here is Round Three of the unrated open chess tournament that I played last Saturday. This game was my only loss of the tournament and resulted in my taking second place. The game, complete with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/StephenCrookston-English.html. Here is part of the game in PGN:

[Event "TCC Open"]
[Site "Tampa Chess Club"]
[Date "2010.04.24"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Mike Serovey"]
[Black "Stephen Crookston"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 g6 4. a3 d6 5. Nc3 Be6 6. d3 Bg7 7. e4 Nge7 8. Nge2 f5
9. O-O O-O 10. f4 Qd7 11. Nd5 Nc8 12. Rb1 Nd8 13. b4 c6 14. Ndc3 fxe4 15. Nxe4
Ne7 16. Bb2 Nf5 17. fxe5 dxe5 18. c5 Ne3 19. Rxf8+ Kxf8 20. Qd2 Nxg2 21. Kxg2
Nf7 22. Rd1 Re8 23. Nf2 Bd5+ 24. Kg1 Bh6 25. Qe1 Ng5 26. Qc3 Nh3+ 27. Nxh3 Qxh3
28. Rf1+ Kg8 29. Rf2 Be3 30. Nf4 Bxf2+ 31. Kxf2 Qxh2+ 32. Kf1 {White was eventually checkmated} 0-1

Mike Serovey Wins His First Chess Trophy Since 1986.

Yesterday I played in an unrated open chess tournament in Tampa that was run by the
Tampa Chess Club. There were only 8 people in this section and all but one were adult men. I got the only boy in Round One and that game is posted below. I won both games with Black and lost in Round Three with White. That was good enough to win the second place trophy.

This game against Daniel Arbel can be found with analysis and diagrams at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/Arbel-Modern_Defense.html. I usually play either 1... Nf6 or 1... f5 against 1. d4 but in this game I decided to get an unknown opponent out of what he wanted to play by transposing into the Modern Defense. Here is as much of the game as I have been able to reconstruct, in PGN:

[Event "TCC Open"]
[Site "Tampa Chess Club"]
[Date "2010.04.24"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Daniel Arbel"]
[Black "Mike Serovey"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. d4 g6 2. e4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. Bc4 c6 5. Nf3 Nd7 6. Be3 b5 7. Bb3 Bb7 8. Ng5 e6
9. Nf3 Ngf6 10. Qd2 O-O 11. h4 a5 12. a4 b4 13. Ne2 c5 14. dxc5 Nxc5 15. e5 Nxb3
16. cxb3 dxe5 17. Qxd8 Rfxd8 18. O-O e4 19. Nfd4 Ng4 20. Nb5 Nxe3 21. fxe3 Bxb2
22. Ra2 Bf6 23. Rxf6 Rd3 24. Nbd4 Rxe3 25. Rc2 Kg7 26. Rf2 Bd5 27. Rc7 Rf8 28.
Ra7 Bxb3 29. Nxb3 Rxb3 30. Rxa5 Ra3 31. Nc1 Ra1 32. Rf1 Rc8 33. Ra7 Rcxc1 34.
Rxc1 Rxc1+ {And Black eventually won on time} 0-1

Mike Serovey Defeats Kadriye in rematch

This is one of my ICC correspondence chess games and is the last one that I completed there. This brings my record for ICC correspondence chess to 29-15-10 and my rating to 1749. I played 2 games against Kadriye in this section and lost the one where I had Black so I needed to win this one in order to even up the score with him. This entire game, complete with analysis and diagrams, can be found at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com/Kadriye-English.html. Here is the game in PGN.

[Event "ICC correspondence 2009Quad.08.02"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2009.09.12"]
[Round "-"]
[White "OnGoldenPawn"]
[Black "Kadriye"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[Opening "English: Bremen, Smyslov system"]
[ECO "A22"]
[NIC "EO.10"]
[Time "00:11:15"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4 4. a3 Bxc3 5. dxc3 O-O 6. Bg2 h6 7. Nf3 Nc6 8.
c5 d6 9. cxd6 cxd6 10. O-O Be6 11. Re1 Qd7 12. e4 Nh7 13. Qd3 Rad8 14. Be3
b6 15. Rad1 Bh3 16. Bh1 Bg4 17. Rc1 Bxf3 18. Bxf3 Ng5 19. Bg2 Ne6 20. Rcd1
Qc7 21. b4 Ne7 22. Re2 Rc8 23. Rc2 Rfd8 24. a4 Qc4 25. Qxc4 Rxc4 26. Rcc1
Rdc8 27. Rxd6 Rxc3 28. Rxc3 Rxc3 29. Rd7 Rc7 30. Rxc7 Nxc7 31. b5 Nc8 32. f4
f6 33. Bf1 Nd6 34. Bd3 Kf7 35. f5 Ke7 36. Kf1 Kd7 37. Bd2 Nb7 38. Bb4 Nd6
39. Ke2 Nce8 40. Ke3 Nc7 41. g4 Nce8 42. Bc2 Nc7 43. Bb3 Nce8 44. h4 Nc7 45.
Kf3 Nce8 46. Bd2 Nc7 47. g5 hxg5 48. hxg5 Nce8 49. gxf6 gxf6 50. Bd5 Nc7 51.
Bc6+ Kd8 52. Bb4 Nc8 53. Kg4 Ne7 54. Bxe7+ Kxe7 55. Kh5 Kf7 56. Kh6
{Black resigns}
1-0

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Goals for 2010

Normally, I post my goals for the new year around January 1 of each year. I haven't posted here in quite a while so I'm just now getting around to it. This time I'm not posting just my chess goals. I'm going to include other goals too.

Last year I didn't play in any USCF rated events so all of those rating stayed the same. I plan to play in some this year and bring my standard rating up to over 1600 again. It hasn't been there in about 20 years now.

My rating at Stan's Net Chess is now up to 2304. My goal for this year is to get it over 2400.

My ratings at ICC are as folows:

rating [need] win loss draw total best
Blitz 1400 [8] 15 28 6 49 1441 (13-Mar-2005)
Standard 1438 [2] 75 86 19 180 1674 (03-Jul-2004)
5-minute 851 [8] 1 2 0 3
Correspondence 1749 29 15 10 54 1749 (26-Mar-2010)

I had some losses in standard play as a result of careless play and my rating dropped so I need to get it back over 1500. Then, I'll work on getting it over 1600.

I got accepted into a Ph.D. program at Northcentral University and start my first class in June. One of my goals is to eventually finish that degree and find a job teaching somewhere.

Another goal is to update several of my web sites and promote them consistently so that they produce steady income.