My First "real" Win against a FM
In 3 yrs+ and over 1,000 online games on Chess.com, I have had the chance to play several games with Titled players (NM, CM, FM, IM). I was able to hold on and "draw" a few games, mostly because of my titled opponents' kindness to offer draws early.
Also, I "won" 2-3 games from Titled players. But in all those games, my opponents simply "lost on time" --perhaps they were playing in real OTB tournaments.
This was my first "real" win against a FM; although it was a Chess960 game. Still, I have no idea why my opponent resigned so early:-
- After 18...Nxe5 (the final position), my plan and the expected continuation was 19.Nxd4?! cxd4 20.Nxe5 with "unclear" position (I thought). Regardless, Houdini showed that line to be actually "better for White"; and that 19...Nxd3 (instead of ...cxd4) would be "advantage for Black". But I did not see those lines at all!
- Instead, in the final position Houdini calculated 19.Nxe5 Rxe5 20.Rxe5 Qxe5 21.Qb2! as only "Slight advantage for Black"