Have you ever played a Grandmaster ?

Share with us your experiences please.

I did play a GM Once on here like 5 tines or so , same guy I lost all . A little upset I really want it to be I'm my stats my best win GM it would look beautiful there, but unfortunately. ....

Anyway when I played him I didn't feel any difference compare say to a CM or FM I think we were playing even , but every time end game he was getting me .

Once thing I wish that was different is time control , all the games I've played were 3|0 I wish it was 3|2 or 5 mins it would be more of a game

Twice. The first time was last year in a simul against GM Yasser Seirawan. I had only gotten into chess about 4 months prior. His play was completely over my head. I think I did alright for a beginner and the experience was really cool. Have never met a friendlier guy in my life.

The second time was a few weeks ago against GM Elshan Moradiabadi. Also a super nice guy. We played a 5 minute game, don't think there was a delay or increment. We were evenly matched up until the end of the middle game. He started snagging up pawns left and right and I resigned when he began pushing a passed pawn. Another great experience.

Right after my simul game with Seirawan I played a 15|0 game against a CM. And I still wouldn't be able to tell the difference in play between a master and above. It's hard to find nuances in what's over your head.

Simul against Alexander Shabalov when I was rated about 1300.  I played the QGD with black and I played about as much theory as I knew, which was about 7 moves.  He played this crazy gambit against me and I got crushed.  When I analysed the game later I learned that the line he played against me is actually of his own creation: the Shabalov-Shirov gambit of the QGD.  White's seventh move is a crazy g4!?, which gambits the g pawn for activity.  Still a fun experience and I'm sure he enjoyed playing his own line.

I played a GM once here on chess.com. he had an open challenge. lost

I played a Russian Grandmaster in San Francisco at the Mechanic's Institute.  Played blitz for $.

I won the first game on time and then he started paying attention and beat me the next 9 games.

I took a beating.

Lol, 2Q1C still trolling about beating an NM with a 1400 daily rating who has a thread saying he'll take challenges from anyone and lose on purpose, who played f3 on move 1 and timed out, like he does in every game.  What a clown.  Agree with TRextastic that as a lower rated player, playing a GM isn't much different than playing an IN, NM, or even a 2000 rated player

This is exaggerating a lot; 600 points is a huge range. I can assure you that people like me should not be compared (too much) to grandmasters. Plenty of experts and NMs have clear weaknesses in fundamental areas.

Anyway, I played Sergey Erenburg a few months ago and got crushed in 20-25 moves (first time someone bothered to play the more dangerous Caro-Kann Advanced lines against me). Also played Shabalov in a simul once and he kind of blundered a piece, but swindled me back. Nice guys, both of them.

I've played a few in online bullet, mostly won/drew on time in lost positions.

During the Crazyhouse championship I played Georg Meier and Jon Ludvig Hammer. I lost to both of them. I've never played a GM in regular chess (that I know of).

I've played an IM online. OTB I've played an FM in a simul and skittles. In tournaments I've not played anyone stronger than NM. Considering I'm rated 2100, I think I should try to play stronger players.

I offer lessons at a somewhat more reasonable rate of $75/hour if interested. I'm not a GM, but I've beaten a number of GMs in tournament games, not to mention IMs.

I played Arthur Bisguier back in the 80s, G/120

I played Igor Nikolayev (2400) around 2013, G/90 d5

Okay no, that was not what I was saying. I'm saying 2000s and 2200s certainly are nowhere near as good as grandmasters (albeit still better than the vast majority of players), so playing them is a whole different story.

I happen to disagree on the IM commentators. IMs are definitely strong enough to offer analysis that more than serves the vast majority of people who listen to pro chess commentary. To say that IMs are not strong enough to understand the moves of GM games is ridiculous and shows a poor understanding of what it takes to become an IM.

I played Yasser Seirawan in a simul back in the 80s in Houston.  I think I was around 1500 or so at the time.  There were 30 of us, and my game wasn't going too well when I found what I thought was a brilliant forcing simplification to an opposite colored bishops ending where I was 2 pawns down.  My knowledge of chess theory was, to put it kindly, light, and I thought it was an automatic draw unless you were 3 pawns down.  Yasser seemed disappointed when he got to my board and I made my move, probably because any other move would have led to a quick end to the game.  Anyway, we got down to four players, Yasser having defeated the other 26, and I was still grinding along, thinking I was doing well.  In my defense, I wasn't the only one who thought I was drawing -- half the club thought I had a draw.  Seirawan quickly gave us all a lesson in opposite colored bishop endings and forced his way through.  I resigned when I finally realized I was helpless.  Afterwards, I was convinced I must have made a mistake somewhere in the ending to "blow" the draw, and I asked the GM if he had known it was a win for white when I entered the simplification sequence.  He nodded politely and said, "Yeah, I knew."  And he did.

Some months later, Susan Polgar came to town and I played her.  She was 16 at the time, I think.  She beat me mercilessly with a tactical combination that took me a long night of analysis to understand.

About a year or so later, Boris Spassky came to Houston.  I was around 1800 by then, and I really wanted to play the former world champion.  I think the simul was held at Rice University.  I'm not sure, though, because I was working shift work and couldn't get off to play.

The memorable one for me was Seirawan.  Always a gentleman, unassuming, polite, and a wizard in the endgame.  Polgar was quiet, shy, and deadly.  And Spassky was a missed opportunity I will forever regret.

I've mentioned this experience once before on these forums so forgive me if this is a repeat.

I did not play a GM but one watched me play a rated OTB USCF game.

In the 1970's, Leonid Shamkovich and Anatoly Lein defected from the old Soviet Union to the West. The month their pictures were on the cover of Chess Life (I got their autographs on my copy), they played in the master section of a tournament where I played in the open section. During one of my games, Shamkovich walked up to my table, stood right next to me, and watched my game for a few minutes. I felt honored that a Grandmaster would find my game interesting and made a great effort to play my best.  I had a winning position when he walked away.

Years later, showing-off the game to one of my high school chess club students, he looked at my scorebook and asked, "You were playing a girl?"

Immediately, it dawned on me that the reason Shamkovich stood there was because I was playing a hot looking woman of about 20 years named Monica who wore a slightly revealing dress.  No wonder Shamkovich was smiling!

Current tournament record against GMs is really low: +9-51=6. Lots of fun and highly educational.

I'm not saying there's no difference. I'm just saying that I wouldn't begin to know what that difference was. Especially since I was very much a beginner at the time. It would be like a 9-year-old who's learning multiplication looking at a book on Calculus and a book on Algebra. He can't see on his own why one might be more complicated that the other.

I played an OTB game(G/60, d5) vs GM Alexander Ivanov -- and this was 16 years ago, when he was still in the top 100 in the world.  I played my Grand Prix Attack against his Sicilian, and he played into a line that I had worked out for many hours on Fritz 6.  In that line I let Black play his Nc6 to b4 and then let the Knight devour my queenside (Nxc2 and Nxa1) while I use the tempos to proceed with a modified Caveman attack against his kingside.  I had beaten a few experts with this line, and a slew of A players, and both "Fritz" and I were convinced of the line's soundness. Ivanov went into a long deep think, leaving himself with just 10 minutes at the 12 move mark, and then proceeded to gobble up the material I had offered.  So, after a dozen moves in, I'm saying to myself, "Holey Moley!  I'm going to mate a top 100 player!"

BUT, incredibly. over the board, Ivanov came up with an 8 move sequence that brought his Knight all the way back from a1, and it arrived, like the cavalry, back at his kingside to escape all of the (non)forced mates.  Needless to say, I was completely deflated, but it made me understand the amazing depths at which "real" chessplayers play.

Nope, never played against a GM yet.  Maybe one day.

But back in the 70's I did play in a simul with U.S. Champion John Grefe when I was in Junior High School.  He took the bus to Sacramento and my junior high school only had about 10 players.  He looked around with a look, "Is that all?" and then proceeded to wipe all us goofy junior high chess geeks out.  (Think "Wonder Years" with Fred Savage).  

My friend who wrote USCF and organized the whole thing was deflated when John Grefe declined the offer to stay for dinner.  He went back to the bus stop.  (All these decades later, I'm wondering whether he was disgusted with USCF for sending him on these chess ambassador missions.)

John did shake the hand of one of my best friends for losing with the longest game.  He was glowing about it for a long time afterwards.  "He shook my hand!"  Of course, I didn't get a shake and I was a bit envious.  

Good fun for us know-nothing kids and the English teacher though.   But for John Grefe?  Must have been a long bus ride home.  "I went all this way to play 10 pimply faced kids?!  What the heck?!"   He was a long-haired hippie looking guy.  Major respect for him.  A great memory.

I have played in several Simultan events. I won against  Sergei Rublevski draw with Hans Bohm , John van der Wiel, Vastamil Hort and Viktor Korchnoi, I lost against Eric Lobron , Loek van Wely and Willi Hendriks.

Played twice here on chess.com live, blitz only, and once with a WGM, and of course, got crushed in less than 25 moves, but nice learning experience, and great fun!