This game of the week comes from the Canadian Open. Hugh Brodie and Luc Gauthier once again did an incredible job and entered over 500 games. This one is definitely worth watching. Nikita Kraiouchkine, one of Quebec's wildest players, played a very nice sacrifice in the opening.
[Event "CAN-op U2400"]
[Site "Montreal CAN"]
[Date "2014.07.24"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Kraiouchkine, Nikita"]
[Black "Libersan, Thierry"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B86"]
[WhiteElo "2232"]
[BlackElo "2090"]
[PlyCount "43"]
[EventDate "2014.07.19"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "CAN"]
[SourceDate "2014.07.19"]
1. e4 c5 2. Ne2 {Nikita often likes to surprise his opponents... But in this
case there was little doubt his goal was still to play d4.} d6 3. d4 cxd4 4.
Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 {The Najdorf defense. This sharp defense was played by
great players such as Fischer and Kasparov.} 6. Bc4 {Nikita is known to play
very sharp variations in the Sicilian and this is one of his favourites.} e6 7.
Be3 {Until now, both players followed the theory. But Black played a very
provocative move.} Nbd7 $2 {It gives White way too many options. Playing b5 or
Be7 would have been much safer and would have avoided the following move.} 8.
Bxe6 $5 {Objectively, this move is probably not the best. But Nikita being a
great tactician, this is what he is was waiting for.} fxe6 9. Nxe6 Qa5 10. O-O
Ne5 {Black attacks the e6 knight and hopes to activates his pieces... But
White has again another strong move.} 11. b4 $1 Qxb4 12. Nc7+ {Winning back
the exchange might not be necessary, but I suspect Nikita's plan was to hope
for a mistake by Black... Which indeed happened.} Kd8 $2 {It is hard to
explain what Black had in mind. The logical square for the king was f7, where
it would have been relatively secure and would not have been in the way of the
other pieces.} 13. Nxa8 Qxc3 14. Bd4 {Oops! Black probably realized why Kd8
was such a huge mistake... He's now losing a piece.} Qc6 15. Bxe5 b5 {What
else? The computer says Nd7 is better, but Black wants, or hope, to win back a
piece. Otherwise, the game is over.} 16. Bxf6+ gxf6 17. Qd4 $1 {Again, White
has a winning move. If it wasn't for this move, White might not be able to
keep his knight and could start being in trouble. After all, Black has the
bishop pair.} Rg8 18. Nb6 Bh3 {Is Black starting to get counterplay?
Unfortunately not, as White shows with his next cold-blooded move.} 19. Nd5 $1
Rxg2+ 20. Kh1 Bg7 {Black has to protect the f6 pawn and has not enough pieces
to threathen White's king.} 21. Qe3 Qd7 22. Nf4 1-0
