There are a couple of achievements to accomplish when someone starts in this world of chess, maybe learn a bit more of the essence of the game, the openings, some tactical improvements, win some tournaments, or beat someone who specializes so much in this game that they have a badge to say so.

I have played against a handful of these masters and I must say it is quite an experience, seeing the badge posing as you play with them adds extra pressure and makes you extra careful with every move you make, in this post we will review one of those games, where I was nervous and excited the whole way through, we will see how with a lot of effort and a few touches of luck here and there we can beat these masters.

I already did a post covering the topic where I beat a FM (FIDE Master) and today it's the turn of the higher rank, the IM (International Master).

Black vs WIM ChessDonkey

I was having a good tournament when I had to play against a pretty strong opponent, I'm not one to hold my punches even if I'm in front of a GM but I must admit that just looking at the board made you doubt some of the plans.

The game started with a clear balance in favour of the master, I had a quite favourable position from the beginning with several of my pieces scattered without many objectives on the board, my concern here was to consolidate and move to another phase of the game.

After a couple of moves I feel that I was in a slightly better position than the last image, a bit more centred with my rook aligned to the centre and having a bit more clear objectives for my position, it was then when the master conceded a pawn, I thought it was a mistake but going over the game with the module it seems that she is not surprised and can maintain equality.

After a certain point the game started to become chaotic, these seem to me to be the moments where my strengths and weaknesses show, I knew how to bleed my opponent's position but I wasn't sure of the correct sequence of moves so I missed a couple of times, reviewing with the module it's much easier to see where my mistake was but in the game I was terrified of making a mistake and giving up a piece.

I had harvested and captured a couple of pawns so I started to simplify the position and create threats with every move, his king by this time was already in the centre looking for support from his pieces and I felt very confident that I could bring these points home, even so I had to play accurately and even more so wait for a mistake from my opponent.

Something that happened already with the time on us, very difficult to defend a position where you are clearly inferior and having to fight against an avalanche of pawns on both sides of the board, after a nice combination where I could get rid of the two missing pieces my opponent resigned the game and I could add some valuable points for the team.

I don't know if this is one of my best games, now that I analyse it a bit more in depth I noticed that there were many mistakes that could have cost me if my opponent had been good, even so I think it's one of the most important victories since I play chess, I don't think you can beat one of these masters every day so you have to enjoy it.