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A very aggressive (and slightly dubious) bishop sacrifice on move 6!

Tomic S. (1910) vs Lalic K. (2202)
Gradište Open 2019, Round 4, 06/26/2019, Pirc Defense

In round 4, after having beaten a 1400 player in the previous one, I faced a very strong opponent. I had time and games to prepare for him, though. I prepared for about six hours, and expected the Sicilian. He plays that almost exclusively against e4, and I found several interesting lines.

Unfortunately, he played the Pirc. I am prepared well against it, and lately I’ve been scoring really well against it. The problem was that he probably knew what I normally play. So, since I didn’t expect d6 on the board, I decided to play something different. He chose the early e5, a move which can lead to a queen exchange if I want it to. I wanted to win so I declined. Instead I played the main move, Nf3. After two more moves, he tangled his pieces up and an opportunity for a sacrifice arose!

I could sack my bishop on f7! I started calculating variations, and after about 15 minutes decided that it was good enough. I saw that he would have pressure and initiative, but I would win a pawn and an exchange in exchange. I went for it!

He played what I had calculated. When we came to the decisive point, at which I could capture the rook or simply castle, reversing the tables, I took the rook. Had I castled, he would have been the one under attack and up material. I saw that, but thought I could defend and keep the material advantage. I was right… partially. I had a chance to stop his attack and consolidate, leaving me with a safe king and up the exchange. Instead I blundered.

The rest of the game was extremely hard for me to play and it didn’t take too long for him to crush me.

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