Pro Chess Hack

The 2017 Pro Chess League (organised by chess.com) was by all measures a great success. Overcoming the issue of distance by holding the tournament online, the organisers fulfilled their goal of holding a world wide chess competition. The format, while a little unusual for OTB chess, was also suited to online chess, with 4 rounds of 15m+2s games per match. The final was won by the St Louis Bishop's beating the Norway Gnomes 9-7. Carlsen went 4-0 for the Gnomes, but it wasn't enough to topple the Bishop's, lead by Wesley So.
Flicking through the games from the event I came across the following hack. Possibly (or even probably) due to the fast time limit, both players took some risks in the opening, but it was Romain (playing Black), that made the final mistake (and probably a few before that as well). This allowed Bacrot to find a nice finish with Qxd7, which either mated or lead to massive material gain.


Bacrot,Etienne (2695) - Edouard,Romain (2626) [A40]
PRO League KO Stage 2017 chess.com INT (2), 08.03.2017

1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. e4 Bb7 4. Bd3 f5 5. exf5 Bb4+ 6. Kf1 Nf6 7. c5 bxc5 8. a3 c4 9. Bxc4 Ba5 10. fxe6 dxe6 11. Qa4+ c6 12. Nf3 Bb6 13. Be3 Nd5 14. Bg5 Qc7 15. Nc3 O-O 16. Re1 Nxc3 17. bxc3 c5 18. Rxe6 Kh8 19. Re7 Qc8 20. d5 Bd8 21. Re8 Nd7 22. Qxd7 1-0