A fortunate misunderstanding

One of the players who took part in the 2014 O2C Doeberl Cup was untitled Chinese player Ke Mu. Despite his low rating (2325) he had a fantastic tournament, scoring a GM norm at the Doeberl, and missing an IM norm at the SIO by 3 rating points (TPR of 2447).
But he mat have been helped by a misunderstanding early on at the Doeberl. It was mentioned by a couple of people that he had already scored enough GM norms for the title, but was just waiting for his rating to catch up. The claim had a ring of plausibility about it, as he had started with a very low FIDE rating early on, and players preparing for him remarked how strong his play looked.
Possibly this reputation as a GM strength 2300 player helped Ke Mu, as his opponents might have been extra wary of him. But when talking to him at the SIO I discovered that the claim of multiple GM norms was not true, and he was not aware of it himself. In fact the GM norm at the Doeberl was not only his first GM norm, but also counted as his first ever IM norm. But he clearly showed himself to be playing at a higher level than his rating, including the following win over current Australian Champion IM Max Illingworth.


Mu,Ke - Illingworth,Max [D41]
O2C Doeberl Cup Premier Canberra (6.6), 19.04.2014

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 c5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 cxd4 8. cxd4 Bb4+ 9. Bd2 Bxd2+ 10. Qxd2 O-O 11. Bc4 b6 12. O-O Bb7 13. Rfe1 Nd7 14. Rad1 Rc8 15. Bd3 Qe7 16. Qf4 Rfd8 17. h4 Nf8 18. h5 h6 19. Bb1 Rc3 20. Ne5 Qf6 21. Qxf6 gxf6 22. Ng4 Kg7 23. d5 b5 24. Re3 Rdc8 25. Bd3 exd5 26. exd5 Bxd5 27. Rg3 Bxa2 28. Ne3+ Kh8 29. Nf5 Bc4 30. Ne7 Bxd3 31. Nxc8 Rxc8 32. Rgxd3 Rc4 33. Ra3 Rc5 34. Rxa7 Kg7 35. Re1 Re5 36. Rxe5 fxe5 37. Rb7 Kf6 38. Rxb5 Ne6 39. g3 Kf5 40. Kg2 f6 41. f4 Kg4 42. Rb6 Ng7 43. fxe5 1-0