From June 2014 to April 2015, I had taken a break from chess to study for my ICSE Board exams. I was itching to get back into chess, because the most I got during this period were a couple of rapid tournaments, and getting to watch the World Championship match between Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen. Soon after my exams, I got to play a few tournaments, first in the Bangkok Chess Club Open, and then in a local rated tournament. I increased my rating overall, but there was nothing special about my performance. The important part was that I had now warmed up, and was hoping to achieve a norm at the Mumbai Mayors Cup held in June 2015.

I won my first round by defeating a player rated 1870. Although it wasn't the smoothest of victories, I was glad to have started off well, because the previous year I had lost my first round and hadn't been able to recover for the rest of the event. In the second round, I was paired up with the white pieces against Swedish champion, Grandmaster Daniel Semcesen. Before the game, I saw that he had a pretty varied repertoire, and it was difficult to prepare against him, but looking closer I noticed he played the Dutch defense against lower rated players, since it gives Black a complex game with a decent amount of winning chances. I spent the rest of my day focusing on the Dutch, preparing an interesting but lesser known variation so that we would be out of book pretty soon. He had a lot more experience than me in the line, so I wanted a position where I knew the general ideas, and not one which was too theoretical.

Ahuja Rohan - Semcesen Daniel
Mumbai Mayors Cup, 03.06.2015

1. Nf3 d6
I knew before the game that he had used this move order to get to the Dutch on multiple occasions.
2. d4 f5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 g6 5. O-O Bg7 6. b4!?
In general, I don't like the idea of playing b2-b4 before c2-c4 because of ...d5 ideas . However, in this position, Black has already committed to ...d6, so to play ...d5 he would have to lose a tempo.
6...O-O 7. Bb2 e6!?
An interesting system, Black slowly prepares ...e5 by playing ...Qe7 and ...Nc6. However, with the dynamic positions in the Dutch, Black has to be careful he isn't too slow.
8. c4 Qe7 9. Qb3
A very natural square for the Queen, also discouraging ...e5 ideas, although it might still be possible for Black to play it without moving his king, as we'll see soon.
9...Nc6 10. Nc3 Kh8N
Black wants to play ...e5, but he could've tried to do it right away.
10...e5 11. dxe5 11... Nxe5 (11... dxe5? 12. Nd5!+- White is winning material.) 12. Nxe5 dxe5 13. Nd5 Nxd5 14. Bxd5+ Kh8 15. b5! White plans Ba3 15...Qe8!? (15... Rd8 16. Rfd1 Rb8, trying to break out with ...Bd7, 17. Qe3!+/-) 16. Qb4 c6 17. bxc6 bxc6 18. Bg2 e4 19. f3, and White is probably slightly better, but Black has some fighting chances here.
A previous game went 10... Bd7 which wasn't a bad try, and would at least help Black develop a little.

11. d5?
I felt like I needed to do something quick, and prevent ...e5. However, ...e5 wasn't working that well for him if I had prepared for it with 11. Rac1!, where I have Nd5 ideas in the air after ...e5. For example, 11...e5 12. dxe5 Nxe5 13. Nxe5 dxe5 14. Nd5 Nxd5 15. cxd5 and White can target c7 and probably win it at some point.
11... Nd8!
Keeping the tension.
12. dxe6 c6
Black wants to stop Nd5, for example, 12...Bxe6 13.Nd5 Bxd5 14.cxd5, and White has the c7 pawn to play against for the rest of the game. ...c6 would open up the game a little, I thought I would benefit from that thanks to the bishop pair.
13. Rfe1
The engine prefers 13. Rae1, and it looks like there wouldn't be a difference, however the key idea (as we'll see in future variations) is that with Rfe1, in some lines the a1 rook would be undefended against a queen on g7. This is why Rae1 is preferred to Rfe1 in many lines in similar positions - which is important to keep in mind.
13... a5?!
Although it looks like Black is creating weaknesses, he isn't fully developed enough yet to try and open the game up like this. He needed to get his bishop out first, for example:
13... Bxe6 14. e4 Nxe4 15. Nxe4 fxe4 16. Rxe4 b5!
The most important takeaway from this is that 17. Nd4 doesn't give White an advantage, because after 17... bxc4 18. Qe3 d5! 19. Nxc6! Qc7! 20. Nxd8 Raxd8 21. Bxg7 Qxg7 - we now see why 13.Rae1 was better than 13. Rfe1. The rook on a1 is undefended, preventing White from winning a piece.
Instead White would probably play something like 17. Rae1 bxc4 18. Qc2 d5 19. R4e3 Bxb2 20. Qxb2+ Qf6, with a messy position for both sides.
14.e4!
14. a3 Bxe6 15. e4 fxe4 16. Nxe4 Nxe4 17. Rxe4 b5! and Black has enough counterplay here, and the line is similar to 13...Bxe6 analyzed above.
14. b5 is also interesting, but I did not want to give direct access to the c5 square without putting him on the back foot, like the text move did.
14... axb4 15. Qxb4 Nxe4 16. Nxe4 fxe4 17. Rxe4 Nxe6 18. Rae1!
setting a little trap by leaving the a2 pawn hanging
18... Rxa2 19. Bxg7 Kxg7??
falling right into the trap
19... Qxg7 20. Qxd6! Black probably didn't want to go into this, since White has a huge initiative.
It is important not to play 20. Rxe6?, because after 20 ...Bxe6 21. Rxe6, Black has a really strong move here.

21...c5! - This move is very important, as it stops the queen from defending the e1 square, so checks on the last rank are harder to defend with moves like Re1. There is no good square for the queen, for example, 22. Qb5 Ra1 23. Re1 (23. Ne1 Qd4 -+) Rxf3! -/+, and 22. Qb3, defending f3 and with the idea of meeting checks with Bf1, runs into 22...Qa1+!, where 23. Re1 Rxf3 wins for Black, and 23.Ne1 looks scary after 23...Rfxf2.

20. Qb3!
20. Nd4 is met by 20...Rfxf2, which is very dangerous for White.
The point of the text move is that Black has to move his rook away from the 2nd rank, thus allowing the Nd4 idea next move.
20... Ra7 21. Nd4
White simply wins a piece now.
Qf6 22. Nxe6+ Bxe6 23. Rxe6 Qxf2+ 24. Kh1 Ra2 25. Qxb7+ Kh6 26. Qxc6
Everything is secure with the bishop on g2.
Rc8 27. Qf3 Rxc4 28. Qxf2 Rxf2 29. Rxd6 Rcc2 30. Rg1 Kg7 31. Rd7+ Kh6
White looks a little stuck, but there is a simple way to escape
32. h3! Rb2 33. Kh2 Rfc2 34. g4 Rc3 35. h4 g5 36. Re1 Rb6 37. h5 Rc2!
Setting a very smart trap. A small lapse of concentration and I would have fallen for it.
38. Red1
This was the simplest.

38. Ree7?? looks very natural.

38...Rxg2+! If Black had no rooks, he would be stalemated. 39. Kxg2 Rb2+ and Black can keep giving checks, 40. Kf3 Rf2+ 41. Kg3 Rg2+ 42. Kh3 Rh2+ 43. Kxh2 And white, despite being two rooks up, has to settle for a draw!
38...Rcb2
38... Rxg2+ 39. Kxg2 Rb2+ 40. R7d2 +-
39. R1d6+
And the rest is easy
Rxd6 40. Rxd6+ Kg7 41. Rd7+ Kh6 42. Rd6+ Kg7 43. Kg3 Rb3+ 44. Bf3 Ra3 45. Kf2 Rb3 46. Be4 Rb4 47. Bf5 Rf4+ 48. Ke3 Rf1 49. Rd7+ Kf6 50. Rxh7 Re1+ 51. Kf2 Ra1 52. Rh6+ Ke5 53. Re6+ Kf4 54. Re4# 1-0
And with that, I achieved my first Grandmaster victory!
With a perfect start to the event, I went on to score my first International Master norm, and this game was my first major step to the title, which is what makes it so memorable.

For a more detailed PGN version of the game, look below.