Even chess gods are human !

Well, it's not everyday you have the opportunity to play a GM in a regular tournament. Last time it happened to me was about five years ago, and GM Jaacob Murey didn't use more than 12 minutes on his clock to sweep me off the board.

This time, I was facing another of these mighty opponents in the 8th round of a 9-rounder in a relaxed mood : I had already played a strong tournament and beyond the results, I was quite happy with my play. Obviously, being fresh and sleeping at night (thank you my beloved children !) + a healthy and regular dose of daily tactics training helped a lot.

I did prepare for this game, because I didn't want to blow it too early. And I was very surprised to find that my opponent was playing almost always the same quiet stuff, whoever he was playing against. I was still expecting some sharp stuff, so I worked on some tactical lines, knowing it was more to improve my confidence than anything else. After all, this guy was playing 30 tournament games every two months - that's what I barely manage to play in 18 months these days...

Very rewarding scalp. Congratulations! Nice annotations as well ... almost felt like I was there watching it! :)

What a game (:

I learnt a fair bit myself. It's quite hard blocking your oponents attack by sacrificing material when you already have sac'd material before for the attack.

Great game. I agree with Shivsky, good annotations, the human touch makes the game more exciting :)

Holy crap! Nice job in beating a GM! Liked the annotations also.

On move 38...Kh8 you say:

At this stage, I had about 12 minutes left. Of course, the first move that crossed my mind was Bf4 to play Rh3 mate. But then I saw Qxg2+ followed by Rg8 and thought winning an exchange wasn't that good. Then I thought : if I could win a tempo by closing the a2-g8 diagonal. I started calculating d5 Rxd5 Bd4 and this idea was so pleasing aesthetically speaking, that I just couldn't let it go. I had played the problem composer Onkoud a few days before and I had sweet memories of Grimshaws and Novotnys crossing my mind. Wow : it would be sooo beautiful if it worked !

After 39. Bf4 Qxg2+ 40. Qxg2 Bxg2 (40...Rg8 41. Rh3#) 41. Kxg2 you would be up a rook but with no mate soon to come.  I do like your 39. d5 move.  It was very nice to block that diagonal since you need a tempo to move your bishop out of the way.  :)  It was a very interesting game.

Wow, beating a GM face to face in tournament conditions... that's a spectacular accomplishment.

 Spectacular is an understatement, it is MAGNIFICENT. I will remove my hat and my toupee for that accomplishment. Keep up the good work!!

Yes, that's absolutely right, but during the game, I quickly and incorrectly counted it as an exchange up ! Maybe that's better this way, because if I had counted correctly, I would probably have discarded the beautiful 39.d5 for the much safer 39.Bf4

Of course, that's a very pleasing result. But it would only be fair to say that :

1. it should have been a draw
2. he didn't put much thought into the game, maybe he was overconfident, or had other things in mind

But I nevertheless seized the opportunity, and that's also what chess is about

That was beautiful! Really liked the d5 pawn push.

VERY nice, and nice commentary, too.  Enjoyed it!  Good job, man.  :)

Even with those considerations in mind, its still a phenomenol accomplishment... and, let's be honest, just getting a draw against a GM in tournament conditions is phenomenol any way one chooses to look at it.

Yeah. He lost because he wanted to win too badly and you actually punished him for it by seeing things he didn't. It's his fault.

Sounds like someone has a case of green envy.

Anyways great game and good job, I find it is way easier to be aggresive against strong players than passive. What a sparkling game that ends in checkmate!

Although d5 is a powerful move, I do not think that it is that "brilliant" (not diminishing the power of the game). It seems like only one of the two playable moves in the position and thus not to difficult to find. If anything I would award the bishop sac the "!" the rest of the game is played out logically. Again great game.

nice

I wasn't really in time-trouble, as I had 12 mins or so for finding d5, with increments of 30s per move. Besides, it was always possible to play Qh6+/Qg6+ to reach the time control. In real time-trouble (2 or 3 mins left), I would have been unable to properly calculate the d5 move.

Wow, OK, that was seriously awesome, congratulations! I think everyone is pretty much together on that the game is very well played, but the discussion is about which part or what moves were better .

In my opinion, the fact that you managed to outplay a GM in an opening he regularly plays into a positionally significantly better early middlegame is a huge accomplishment in itself. You also had ideas and maneuvers that actually worked, like the knight maneuver, the bishop maneuver etc.

Plus, you had the correct mindset to play a move like Bxg6+, which engines do mention is not the objectively best move, but I think it might be the best move you've made in the game, just because it demonstrates your psychological approach, and isn't a game losing blunder type of inaccuracy anyway, engines suggest its drawing at worst. The 2nd in my opinion would be Bf4!, which I found much more difficult than the d5 move.

Anyway, congratulations. And a question: how do train?

Are there any theoretical problems with 6...Nbd7? Because I like the looks of the QGA, but wouldn't want to allow a virtual draw offer (unless I really wanted one) with an early ...c5 and if white wanted to ruin the fun, trade queens. I think in the game explorer it's like 80-90% draws or something, lol.

It seemed to transpose to some normal line after your moves.