Introduction

I have recently reached a rapid rating of 2100 on Chess.com. It’s around this time where titled players start showing up, and sure enough, on March 18th 2025, I beat the first titled player I played against. It was a candidates master from Brazil, rated 2157.

The Opening

The opening was a pretty standard open Sicilian defense, where both sides will castle short. White has a very small edge due to the extra central space and slight lead in development. Black still needs to develop the bishop to g6 and castle, before trying to equalize in the center.

Severe Blunder #1

Then they traded on c6, and after bxc6, surprised me with e5. If I take the bishop then obviously my structure will get severely damaged after exf6, and the e-file also gets opened towards my uncastled king. I didn’t like dxe5 either, as this splits my pawns and I probably can’t hold on to the extra e pawn. Though the computer suggests that this is objectively the best move. So naturally, I tried Ng4, going for the pawn with my knight instead, while their bishop is still attacked. This is a huge blunder but it’s very hard to see why. White can play Be2, attacking the knight, and after ... Nxe5 f4 and suddenly my knight is out of squares and I lose a piece.

Middlegame

Instead my opponent played Bxc6, distracting my bishop from the defense of my knight on g4. I’m down a pawn now, but I’m down a pawn in half of my games. After ... Bxc6 Qxg4, I played Bg7, focusing on development instead of splitting my structure again with dxe5. My opponent played e6, again trying to weaken my structure, but I simply castled O-O. Bg5 was played, and I responded with f5. They went Qc4, which was a bit surprising since I can gain a tempo with Rc8. They played Nd5, basically forcing me to take the knight with Bxd5. After Qxd5, I decided to just grab a free pawn with Rxc2. They challenged the file with Rac1 but I didn’t have anything better than to grab another free pawn, so I did just that with Rxb2.

Severe Blunder #2

My opponent prepared a stack on the c-file with Rc6. I kicked the annoying bishop out with h6, and after Be3, I continued with f4. Then they made the decisive blunder with Bxa7??, which I capitalised on with Qa8!. Suddenly their c6 rook is pinned, and their a7 bishop is out of squares. The desired move is Rc7, infiltrating the seventh rank and defending the bishop, but that is met with Qxd5. The pin also disallows Ra6 or Bb6.

The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake
— Savielly Tartakower

Finish

My opponent tried Rfc1, stacking on the c-file, but I simply took the bishop Qxa7. They tried to complicate things with Rxd6, but I finished the game in style with ... Qxf2+ Kh1 f3. The pawn cuts off the queen’s defense of g2 and mate is unstoppable. My opponent resigned and with that, I won my first game against a candidates master.

Links

The game on chess.com: Click here
Play with me on chess.com: Click here