Amsterdam, 1889. A 20-year-old Emanuel Lasker, in his first big international event, unveiled a combination so clean it became a named pattern: the double bishop sacrifice. Bauer's 13...a6 looked harmless, but it let both of Lasker's bishops smash through the kingside in two moves, dragging the king out and winning the queen. The idea has been copied by masters ever since.
When both your bishops point at a castled king and you have a queen and rook to follow up, the pawns sheltering that king are not safe — they're targets. Lasker gave up both bishops on h7 and g7 because the resulting king exposure let him win the queen with checks. The pattern: Bxh7+, then Qxh5+ and Bxg7 with the rook lift waiting behind.
It's a thematic attack where both bishops, aimed at a castled king, are sacrificed on h7 (or h2) and g7 (or g2) to strip away the pawns, after which the queen and a rook deliver the decisive blows. Lasker vs Bauer 1889 is the model game; Nimzowitsch–Tarrasch 1914 echoed it.
13...a6 was the losing move — it ignored the two bishops trained on the king. 13...g6 would have kept the kingside solid and the game roughly equal. Once both bishops were unopposed, the combination was already there.
Yes — take the board as White just before 15.Bxh7+ and try to find the two sacrifices and the rook lift, or step through the whole game move by move, no sign-up.
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