Bobby Fischer came up with the move d6 after having lost against Spassky in 1960. The Fischer Defense was in his opinion a refutation of the King’s Gambit.
The King’s Gambit is a risky opening. That much is clear. Especially when compared to classical variations. It can become too much for black to handle, though, if white is allowed too much activity. The point of the gambit is that white gets rid of the black pawn on e5 and aims to create a huge center with pawns on d4 and e4. If black allows that, white is almost equal.
The other thing is that black is almost forced to defend his extra f4 pawn after he accepts the gambit in order to keep his opening edge. In the meanwhile, white goes on with development and tries to justify the sacrifice.
Bobby Fischer’s idea of playing d6 as response to Nf3 is quite remarkable. Even though the move has been played before, the opening was never really developed until Fischer began to use it. After Boris Spassky defeated him in the King’s Gambit in their game played in Mar del Plata in 1960., Fischer devised his novelty which was to become known as the Fischer Defense.
A year after the game, Fischer published an article on the opening titled: “A Bust to the King’s Gambit”, in which he went on to analyze why the opening was a forced win for black. The article was published in the first edition of the American Chess Quarterly.
He wasn’t completely correct, but he wasn’t much off either. The Fischer Defense leads to favorable positions for black in almost all variations, and the statistics show that black is better out of the opening. In live book, the data shows that black wins 45% of the games after …d6, white wins 29%, and 26% of the games are drawn. On move three, that’s a huge thing!
Many great grandmasters have adopted Fischer’s antidote to the King’s Gambit since 1961 (and Fischer never played a serious game in it!) and his defense remains one of the best ways to fight white’s opening sacrifice.
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