Playing a GM in a simul: how can a low-rated player prepare for that?

When I play a lower-rated player I like to get a sharp/tactical position because I can much more easily win with tactics. My choice would be play somewhat safely but not "close the position". Also, play your normal opening. If your reading this you might be tempted to play an exchange slav or exchange french even though you don't normally play them. Much more beneficial to play your normal opening so you can make improvements to it over time.

play as sharp as you can (as long as you do not do something stupid).

in simul games strong players need use what they already know.

You should try positions that have a 'unclear' rating and avoid any idea that you think is winning.

For example: "oh, I can isolate that pawn and...". No, understand one thing: if you know, his GM opponent know too!

By complicating the position you force your opponent to calculate more than just following guidelines. And being a simul you can calculate (with brute-force analysis if necessary) and your opponent will not have that much time.

He will always try to lead the position to something known, some structure well defined. Do not remove the tension in the center. Avoid as much as you can common structures like Caro-Slav, KID, etc ...

In normal situations to challenge a GM to for a heads-up match is crazy, but being a simul you can compensate your inferiority in the calculation...

In this case, study some sharp variations from some openings... Some sharp variants are avoided even by GMs themselves! Search for these variants and try to play them...

I think that is your best chance to WIN. For draw, try some drawish position with few space to smart positional maneuvers...

In poker, as well as in chess, there are levels. And in poker the reason a lower-level player does not beat a top-level player is that all the ideas that the weaker player tries, dont matter how clever he or she thinks they are, the stronger the player will know. It is allowed to try to be smart, but as long as you are creative, if you are using something you learned in known games will not work. "I know you know I know" is a kind of motto in poker. In chess that means if you are using smart guidelines, trying ideas someone teached, etc.. you can beat just weak players... In this case, dont try any strategy, try concrete play! That is because you should sharp postions because general principles are less important! And if you have more time and you are a young person, raw calculation is the best bet!

I stand by my opinion that playing how you would normally play is best. Play the board not the player!

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I have good results against GMs in simuls. The key to remember is that although you are a much weaker player, the GM has to play many games and can't spend too much time on your game. For this reason, many will prefer to have a position where they can comfortably outplay you based on their intuitive understanding of the game. For this reason, one approach is to try to apply pressure to their position which may be difficult to deal with in the short amount of time that they can spend at your board.

If you would be happy with a draw and have the opportunity, sometimes you can trade down to an equal position in which case neither side has much in the way of winning chances. I have gotten several draws this way.

Never assume that the GM will not miss even simple tactics. GMs are human and can make simple blunders just like anyone else. It is also more likely when you put their position under pressure and they have to make decisions quickly. I once won a bishop from a GM in a simul in this way.

I would say that you should try to make the game sharp while there are still a lot of players in the simul, in order to reduce the amount of calculation the GM can spend on your game as much as possible.

Thanks for all your responses! Interesting debate here: sharp/tactical vs. safe/closed...

My plan was to play 1.Nf3 if white and 2. ...g6 as black, but this might give the GM too much ability to determine the rest of the game, if I don't know how to respond.

My basic strategy will be to play positionally in the opening and try to play sharp in the middle game. I will look for something complicated once all my pieces are out. If I can get some kind of advantage then, that will be my only chance. I am not going to play for a draw and I would surely lose an endgame without any advantage.

I will say that this is their repertoire according to chessgames.com (# of games in parentheses):

With the White pieces:
Queen's Pawn Game (85)
A46 A41 D05 A40 D02
King's Indian (67)
E62 E60 E67 E71 E97
Queen's Indian (42)
E15 E14 E16 E12 E17
Queen's Gambit Declined (34)
D37 D30 D38 D35 D31
Grunfeld (31)
D85 D76 D86 D87 D80
Semi-Slav (27)
D47 D43 D45 D46

With the Black pieces:
Sicilian (118)
B32 B33 B22 B30 B25
Queen's Gambit Accepted (54)
D20 D21 D24 D26 D27
King's Indian (53)
E92 E80 E66 E62 E81
Ruy Lopez (32)
C67 C60 C99 C84 C76
English, 1 c4 e5 (24)
A25 A20 A28 A27 A21
French Defense (18)
C07 C19 C05 C00 C02

I wish there were some way of knowing which color I was playing....

They never play the same as against their fellows in simuls... you can’t outprepare them.

You can try to get the list of opening with white with which they score less points (black wins more often against them than they win), and openings with black they score less (white wins more often than they do). It's more about what do they do wrong that about what they do play most frequently. Then go through those lines and try figure out if there are any common elements. For instance, some players perform worse in certain structures. If you see that they have a bad score against a Benoni or they don't like to face the English, etc.
Try getting your repertoire with black against the main 4 moves and always chose the lines that the database gives them the worst results. Hope that helps. But don't expect to outprepare them, just try to get them out of their confort zone. It's unpleasant to face moves you have a bad score against and that's all you can do.