Ivan Saric vs Etienne Bacrot, Berlin Defense C65
Bundesliga (2017/18)
To honor the Croatian football team, who are playing France in the World Cup finals today, I have decided to cover a game in which the best Croatian chess player – Ivan Šarić outplayed one of the best French players of all time, Étienne Bacrot.
Football is the sport in Croatia, and the success our team had in 98’ has been considered the most important event since the end of the war. This year our team managed to surpass that (n 98’ we finished 3rd, and France was the team that eliminated us in the semi-finals). The fact that our country is in the world cup finals is astonishing, and the whole nations seems to be in some sort of football trance. People don’t seem to be talking or thinking about anything else.
About the game, it was one of Šarić’s brilliant tactical victories against the Berlin Defense. He managed to outwit and outplay Bacrot with ease, and he did it with a remarkable central pawn sack, which gave him immense compensation and an initiative the Frenchman couldn’t handle. Let’s hope Croatia plays that way today!
Here are the game moves:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. Nbd2 d6 6. c3 O-O
7. O-O Ne7 8. d4 exd4 9. cxd4 Bb6 10. Re1 Bg4 11. h3 Bh5
12. a4 a6 13. Bf1 Bg6 14. a5 Ba7 15. Ra4 Nc6 16. d5 Nb8
17. Nh4 Nbd7 18. Ndf3 Re8 19. Nxg6 hxg6 20. Rc4 b5 21. axb6
Bxb6 22. Qc2 a5 23. b3 Bc5 24. e5 Nxd5 25. Bg5 Qb8 26. e6 Rxe6
27. Rxe6 fxe6 28. Qxg6 Nf8 29. Qc2 Nb4 30. Qb2 Qe8 31. Rg4 Qf7
32. Bh6 Ng6 33. h4 gxh6 34. h5 Rf8 35. Kh1 e5 36. Bc4 d5
37. Rxg6+ Kh7 38. Qxe5 Re8 39. Rf6 Rxe5 40. Rxf7+ Kg8 41. Nxe5
dxc4 42. bxc4 Bd4 43. Rf5 a4 44. Nf3 Bb2 45. Ra5 a3 46. Nd2
Nd3 47. Nb1 Nxf2+ 48. Kg1 1-0