My First Rapid Chess Win Against a Grandmaster

I got a rare opportunity to play a grandmaster in the Fisher Random World Championship qualifier two Sundays ago as I was paired against Alexander Donchenko. After my opponent castled kingside but failed to close things down with ...g5, I broke through surprisingly quickly.

I was streaming this game so you can see all of my thoughts, including my somewhat overblown incredulity when my opponent castled kingside, a move that could have worked but seemed very risky to me.

This was a special game for me as it was my first win against a grandmaster outside of blitz. In the same event, I even got to play GM Le Quang Liem, definitely the strongest grandmaster I've ever played in rapid or classical. My next challenge is to win a classical game against a grandmaster! Thus far, I've drawn two grandmasters in classical (Lein and Rohde) and lost to three (Stripunsky, Kudrin, Hernandez).

Here is the full game. The most important reveal from Stockfish after the fact was the battle for g5. When I played Bh3, ...g5 would have been strong, closing down my play. When the move was omitted, Donchenko's position quickly collapsed as I was the one to play g5.