An Extremely Nice Attack

The attacking idea in this game draws inspiration from the standard Grand Prix Attack, where white is able to play Bb5 after black’s Nc6. In this case, however, black prevents it with his early 4... a6 move. I responded by correctly playing 5. g3 transposing into a closed Sicilian with a tempo up, and carried out a similar attacking sequence Qe1 g4 f5 Qh4 f5 Bh6 Ng5 and the sacrifice Rxf6!.

Another nuance is that, normally white has a rook on a1 that can swing across to f1 when Kxf6 happens. In this game, the rook on a1 is also sacrificed, making the attack much more calculation-intensive. Luckily, black did not find the only defending move 20... Kxe5 (which is shocking!), and I was able to score a nice win.