Originally posted by vipiuThe rook was sacrificed for the attack intentionally. I was following a line in Neil McDonald's book French Winawer published in 2001.
At least I like that you did not pretend that you have sacrificed thaht Rook 🙂. Probably you missed the mate threat and you thought you can pick up his Rook in exchange.
It happened to me a couple of times OTB too. My opponent attacks on one side of the board and when i realise I can not stop him to break my position I start disperately to lunch a counteratt ...[text shortened]... d I won. when you see you are loosing it is good to complicate the position as much as possible)
Edit: Taavo deviated from the book line when he played Bg5 instead of Be5 which should either draw or lead to a game where black is a pawn up but down the exchange.
Edit2: The reason I chose such a sharp system was that I figured I had no chance in a normal position against a player that much better than me.