Hi all, This is
Fischer vs Spassky game six from the 1972
World championship match
held in Reykjavík Iceland
Fischer playing White
shocked everyone in the World by playing c4
He had only on ..
one or two occasions before played this move. One was a game against Polguavsky which ended up in a draw
So ...
After c4 Spassky must have been quite shocked and
a lot of the russian preparation avoided
but anyway
spassky played
an opening he knew very well
In the Queens Gambit declined variation
he played his pet Tartakower variation
which is this
b6 move here
Tartakower is very famous in chess for having a number of
very witty and funny
quotations
this system named after him is very solid
and black often prepares to fianchetto the queen's bishop
Fischer played cxd5 here
and after Knight takes d5
Fischer exchanged
bishops off
and played Knight takes d5
So we see some simplification here
and one of the points is that
the black pawn on d5 is fixed and it is going to be joined with another pawn
very soon
black will have hanging pawns now out of this opening
and this is all quite theoretical at the time
Fischer had kept up with the theory by reading Russian magazines
and
Bishop B5
now was played by Fischer
and after a6
the hanging pawns and in particular this pin
on the diagonal
was exploited now by first Fischer playing dxc5
and now FIscher
leaves that bishop on B5. He doesn't need to move that
He just castles
and after Rook a7
that pin is no longer true on the 'a' pawn
so he retreats his bishop
and after Nd7 he now plays Knight d4
so we see this diagonal pin being exploited now
with this knight d4
and this is the start of Fischer gaining a slight advantage now
out of the position
because after Queen f8
there's a great little positional combination here
Fischer first plays Knight takes e6
which is
subtly weakening
Black's pawn structure
because after this
now Fischer sacrifices a pawn brilliantly with e4
so this pawn structure is really under fire now
especially because White has this
potentially powerful very powerful
light squared bishop
to which Black has no counterpart
And we see now Black
playing quite passively now with d4
just letting this bishop have a very powerful post on c4
but first
Fischer is careful not to give black any space in the center
with e5
which might help justify this this plan
He first plays f4
and now after Qe7 Fischer gains further space
and further he fixes this pawn on the light square
by playing e5
so this has been very nicely played positionally so far
with this target here and his target here
for this light squared bishop
After Rb8
Fischer used that beautiful c4 square
now in this position
Black cannot play Nb6
to chase that bishop from that outpost
because of Qxc5 because if Qxc5
then Bxe6 and recapturing the Queen with big advantage to White
so this bishop is a real pain on c4
targeting this light squared pawn
so spassky played
King h8 here
and now
Fischer magnificently switched his attention to the Queenside
with this Queen h3 move
this poor pawn being targeted
but also you know
Whites forces starting
for a Kingside attack here
Spassky just passvely retreats that poor knight to f8
and now Fischer now consolidates his position on the Queenside now
by playing b3
and spassky played a5
So here a4 would be tempting just to cement that pawn on a5
But Fischer actually plays f5
with the idea of
gaining a lot of pressure now on this f-file
the immediate threat now also of f6
so he's not wasting any time with a4
spassky took on f5 and we see Rook f5
Now Knight h7 ... so is this knight going to be useful later coming to g5
Fischer is not concerned - he just doubles rooks on the f-file
And ..
let's see if Knight g5 .. is there any knockout blow
maybe not
maybe Qd3 is an advantage to White or just Qh5
and What is Black doing ?! If Qh5 for example then Rf5 and the knight is
forced to move back
So Spassky is in a very passive position here
He plays actually Qd8
and Fischer now plays Qg3
so it's combining
a light square attack now with a potentially dark square attack with this queen being useful on this diagonal
And we see now that after Re7
h4
spassky really hasn't got a very good plan here
But Fischer increases his space with e6 and the Queen is coming
to a very dominant central square here
on e5
So Spassky is just forced into a very passive position
Previously he hasn't lost in this variation - this tartakower variation
Very solid variation for black
so some shuffling around the time control
and now Bishop d3
so what's going on here .. Fischer is preparing a final assault on this light square diagonal now
Queen now coming now to e4
with some
menacing threats
Spassky now played
knight f6
but it all looks to be very lost
My analytical assistant thinks that White is almost five points up here
in Computer terms
spassky played Knight f6 and now Rook takes f6 was played
A very logical exchange sacrifice
shattering
Black's king position
immediately gaining one pawn for the exchange
but soon to be getting
at least another or a mating attack
Spassky played here King g8
and Fischer has many roads to victory here
He has Rook takes h6 for example
but actually what he played
was Bishop c4
and Black's position is still
really hopeless here
in this position the exchange up
for a pawn
his king safety is just
blown to pieces
After King h8
Fischer now played Queen f4
and it is actually a forced mate according to my analytical assistant
whatever black does
Spassky here resigned
but let's have a look at an example continuation
Queen g8 say
Queen e5
Rook h7
e7
and it is just all over!
multiple threats
the pawn .. the bishop
double checks
so in this position
spassky had resigned. Let's have a quick overview and summary of the game
Fischer playing unusually c4 so we get a Queens Gambit declined transposition
the Tartakower variation with b6
We see now out of the opening we get these hanging pawns
Fischer had
tempted weaknesses as well with a6 with this Bishop to b5 move
and now we see the hanging pawns now being exploited with this diagonal pin
and a beautiful positional combination now
to blast open these light squares
and fix this pawn on e6
with this f4 and e5 plan
Now Fischer turns his attention to the Kingside
puts a lot of pressure on the f file doubling the rooks
the queen comes back to the center now
with a menacing position and finally we see
a beautiful combination with Rook takes f6
exchange sacrifice for a pawn
and a winning attack
to which there is no defence
after Qf4. A brilliant game
fifteen hundred spectators applauded!
Spassky also applauded Fischer!
which Fischer was very honoured by
this was one of the greatest games
in the 1972 World championship match played in Reykjavík Iceland
an excellently played game by Fischer