I played a game the other day, I think the opponent was rated like 2025 on Gameknot. I sac'ed a piece on the 9th move, naturally it was unsound but he didnt play the best move so I ended up a pawn up. Houdini gave the proper move as totally winning for him....and it wasnt hard to see it either.
So eventually I won the scrappy game even though I made other mistakes.
Then after the game I noticed the guy had typed "its obvious you are cheating, you wont learn anything like that" lol
I'd rather be NM than CM since NM says you're a master whereas CM says you're a candidate even if CM is harder since it's FIDE based. I'd be happy achieving either one. I'm studying defense, almost done How to Defend in Chess and then will order Aagard's Practical Chess Defense since it's well known among titles to attack amateurs as we aren't exactly noted for our defensive abilities. I'd like to correct that at least in myself
Also, no way OP was cheating, 3...Nd4? was a weak move that moves the same piece twice, and 5.c3?! concedes the advantage by handing black development. 5...Qg5! 6.Bf1,Bc5 already illustrates the problems with white's weakening pawn move. Simply castling was best, with d3 move the bishop and Nd2 afterward.