I beat a Grandmaster with Black!

Recently I played in a 9 round rapid team event with a weird time control 12+3. I'm much more familiar with 10+5, so I was hoping it won't be that big of a difference. We were seeded in the middle of the pack which gave us a lucky pairing — we played the first round on Board 1! Even though I was an amlost 400-points underdog and playing Black I was feeling fairly confident (maybe it's delusion, maybe it's justified). Fun fact, I couldn't choose between my responses to 1.e4, so I flipped a coin, hitting my Board 2 teammate in the head.

Going back to the game, my opponent opened with 1.Nf3. This used to haunt me when I was playing 1...d5, but since then I switched my strategy and I'm not sad about getting a calmer game after 1...Nf6, as I can still look for imbalances. However I'm not very happy with positions arising after 2.c4 (forcing a Symmetrical English, QGD, or KID which I don't play) or 2.b3 and since I picked up the Sicilian Defence, I can open with 1...c5 often getting a more favorable move-order.

1.Nf3 c5 2.e3 g6 3.d4 Bg7 — Keeps the bishop open, mostly matters in case of dxc5
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 — Black can also play 2...Nf6, this is just a possible option, I haven't settled on one yet
1.Nf3 c5 2.b3 d5 3.e3! Nc6 4.Bb2 f6!? 5.d4 cxd4 6.exd4 Bg4 — Queen's Gambit Exchange with Black!

I specifically omitted (fancy word :D) 2.g3, as with what I play it's better to start with 1...Nf6. In the game my opponent went for exactly that.

4.Qe2 is the key engine move. However out of 46 games in the Masters Database after 2...b5 only 6 continued with 3.e4 and only 2 with 4.Qe2! one of which had a very interesting idea by Black on move 7. What I'm trying to say, this a small risk I'm definitely willing to take.

My opponent decided to go back to familiar teritory with 4.d3, and we got a very standard position for this variation. I feel like you can expect to get this position in like third of your games, if you decide to try out 2...b5. By the way if you are a F***ch player struggling against the King's Indian Attack, you can choose 2...b5, or 2...c5-b5 aswell instead of typical d5.

White choose an inaccurate setup with b3–Bb2, which I was able to punish with 12...d5, but followed it up wrong. Typical f6 would be better, as my c4 plan allows White to defend the e5 pawn with 15.d4! (also check 15.Rb1 for a funny repetition). Luckily for me, my opponent also thought he made a mistake allowing c4, and strategically blunders by capturing. Now my queenside play is clearly faster, the question is how do I adress White's incoming attack.

With some ups and downs I managed to defend my king and convert my queenside initiative. The clear lesson from this game is to haste less, as there were moments I could simply stop White's attack, after which mine is unstoppable. Like 21...Rfd8! tying White to defending e5, or 26...h6 pinning White's bishop.

Sadly we lost the match 1-3. In the second round I got paired against a CM. I got a nice position early on, but quickly misjudged his play and found myself in trouble I wasn't able to get back out. That match we also lost 1-3, which means I didn't get to play any stong opponents till the end. At least I won all of these games finishing at 8/9, taking gold medal on Board 1 and gaining +56.8 FIDE. Standings

And this event isn't an outlier. A week before I had another banger tourney finishing second as a 14th seed beating an FM with Black last game in the same Nf6–b5 line. If that event was rated I'd gain bonus +44.5, which would let me cross 2000 on rapid. Standings and the study link

Final thoughts

Honestly it doesn't feel like that big of an achievement. I felt much more proud of myself after my first win against a Grandmaster, after beating an IM with Black in a classical game, getting a winning position against GM Soćko or even after beating an FM last week in an equal material rook endgame (from the same opening). The game itself wasn't very high-quality, especially missing the simple 15.d4 in the opening. And it was followed up by a loss with the White pieces.

On the other hand, maybe it's good I don't feel extremely excited after this victory, as it might mean I feel like I belong at that 2200-2300 level, I feel like I can play these players like equals, not like I'm an underdog. But obviously, that won't stop me from bragging about it for some time :D

Thanks for reading and I hope to have more great games and good news after my next event.