Nearly two decades ago, I played a classical team game at Wilayah Kompleks against Nor Ilhamuddin.

I was unrated, and Nor was slightly over 2000 Elo. I had Black, and right before the game I had watched an Andrew Martin lesson on the Modern Defence.

As the game unfolded  many of the moves and plans I played were straight from the video. Of course, it was ZERO originality, and I was not even calculating - just not believing why this game is following the exact moves from the video. I was mostly following Andrew Martin's simple theme about attacking weaknesses on a particular color complex, and the moves seemed to choose themselves after the pawn structure was locked.

I reached a position where I was better as Black and offered a draw. Nor declined. After that, instead of my advantage disappearing, Black’s position somehow kept getting better and better, until I eventually won - a result I didn't deserve at all !

Even though it was one of my biggest results, I also remember like I had “cheated” in a way, because more than half the game was rote memorisation rather than my own understanding. A much stronger player had lost to a much weaker player like me, and part of me felt that was unfair.

That win, plus a draw against Jax in the same team tournament, helped me get an initial rating of 1700+. After FIDE’s last “adjustment,” it became 1800+. I did not play much after that, and my rating has been inactive since.

Here's a video song I created based exactly on this story: