Greetings to all chess fans and Midnight Letters community! I'm following the FIDE World Cup in India. It's a chess tournament where the first three placers earns a spot in the Candidates Tournament in 2026. The Candidates tournament will determine who will challenge the world champion for the title. One of the players I'm following is 12 year old Argentine prodigy Faustino Oro. His first round opponent is Ante Brkic from Croatia, rated 2579. Faustino won his match but had a loss in the first game after a brilliant tactic by his opponent.
The game started with 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. c3 Bg4 6. h3 Bh5 7. Qb3 Qd7
I chose the game to review because it has a similar structure to games I played with the London System opening. 8. Ne5 Nxe5 9. dxe5 a6
The move a6 stops White's threat of Bb5. 10. c4 d4 11. g4 Bg6 12. Bg2 Rb8
White's position looks loose. h5 looks good to refute White's play. 13. Nd2 e6 14. Ne4 f5 15. exf6 Nxf6 16. Nxf6+ gxf6 17. O-O Bc5 18. Re1 Kf7 19. Bf4 Rbd8 20. Qf3 Rhf8
I preferred h5, trying to open the h-file but it will be answered by g5. 21. Rad1 Kg7
Bc2 followed by d3 looks like a good continuation to me. 22. h4 e5 23. Bd2 h6 24. h5 Bc2 25. Rc1 Bh7 26. b4 Be7 27. c5 Rb8 28. Qg3 Rg8
Rg8 was a blunder but White didn't see the tactic. 29. f4 {29. Rxe5 fxe5 30. Qxe5+ Bf6 31. Bxh6 is a winning attack.} Kh8 30. g5 fxg5 31. fxe5 Qe6 32. c6 bxc6 33. Rxc6 Qxa2 34. Bc1 d3 35. e6 Rbf8 36. Rc7 Rg7
The position above was reached. White finds a clever exchange sacrifice recognizing that Black will be weak on a1-h8 diagonal. 37. Rxe7 Rxe7 38. Qe5+ Rg7 39. Bb2 Rg8 40. e7 d2
White wins by a mate in 5 starting with a beautiful Queen sacrifice. 41. Qxg7+ Rxg7 42. e8=Q+ Bg8 43. Bxg7+ Kxg7 44. Qg6+ {And mate on the next move.} 1-0
Game link: https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-world-cup-2025--round-1/tiebreak-1-rapid-1/Avwj3cFi/ZhM7VtwU
After this loss Faustino showed maturity by winning on demand then winning the tie breaks.