Short But Sweet

FACED a junior from Singapore this afternoon in the first round of the Malta international open, which is being held in the Topaz hotel in the seaside resort of Bugibba.
Spanton (1934) - Xiu Ning Charlene Mak (1465)
Sicilian Bb5(+)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.c3 Bg7 5.d4 cxd4 6.cxd4 Qb6?!
Easily the most popular move in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database, but it may be a mistake.

White to make his seventh move

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7.Nc3
At least one grandmaster has bottled out here with 7.Bxc6?!, but the text is a very promising pawn sac.*
7...Nxd4?
Again the most popular move, but this time definitely a mistake.
Stockfish10 suggests 7...e6 8.e5 (other moves are also good) Nge7 9.0-0 with a clear advantage to White. Komodo10 gives 7...Nf6 8.Qe2 0-0 (8...Nxd4 9.Nxd4 Qxd4 10.Be3 gives White good compensation for a pawn) 9.d5 with a slight edge to White.
Another possibility is to take the d4 pawn immediately, but with the bishop. However, after 7...Bxd4 8.Nxd4 Qxd4 9.Qe2, White again has obvious compensation for the pawn.
8.Nd5 Nxf3+ 9.Qxf3 Qd8?!
Probably better is 9...Qd6, when the engines reckon 10.0-0 gives White the upper hand, although a junior rated 2000+ was happy enough to reach this position twice last year.
10.Bf4 e5 11.Qc3
Much stronger than 11.Rc1?
11...Kf8
There seems to be nothing better.
12.Bxe5 Bxe5 13.Qxe5 f6
Or 13...Qa5+ 14.b4!
14.Qd6+ Kg7 15.Nc7 Rb8? 16.Ne6+
The game is effectively over. XM played on to the bitter end (1-0, 45 moves), but for once it is no exaggeration to say the result was never in doubt.
Addendum: having just checked my databases, I see that when I previously reached the position after 6...Qb6?!, against a 2296 at Hradec Kralove (Czech Rep) in 2013, I too bottled out with 7.Bxc6?! (0-1, 30 moves).