Action Chess Plus USCF Tournament - Game 1

Wall of shame.

What I played: 7...a6. Putting a question to the bishop.

What I did wrong: I missed the capture of the hanging Knight on d4. I immediately saw the fork of Queen and Bishop with 7...Nxd4 and asked myself if white can get out of the fork. Saw Bxd7, giving white a tempo to move the Queen. But I completely forgot that this also captures the hanging Knight!!

What I should have done: 7...Nxd4 capturing the hanging Knight, forcing his queen to move to safety, and attacking his bishop twice.

Type of error:

1. Board vision error. I saw the knight capture but did not internalize (or forgot) that this was a free piece.

2. Possible pattern: In the sicilian defense, I usually want to play a6, but not always sure of the timing. Next time I will play 5...a6, going into the standard Najdorf variation (MCO).