The Fischer Defense to the King's Gambit

King's Gambit

The King's Gambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves:White offers a pawn to divert the Black e-pawn so as to build a strong centre with d2–d4...

 is a chess opening

Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...

 variation that begins with the moves:

1. e4 e5

2. f4 exf4

3. Nf3 d6

Although 3...d6 was previously known, it did not become a major variation until Fischer advocated it in a famous 1961 article in the first issue of the American Chess Quarterly

American Chess Quarterly

The American Chess Quarterly was a chess magazine that was published in the United States from 1961 to 1965 by Nature Food Centres. Sixteen issues were published, in four volumes of four issues each, from Summer 1961 through April-May-June 1965...

.

History

After Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer

Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...

 lost a 1960 game at Mar del Plata

Mar del Plata

Mar del Plata is an Argentine city located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, south of Buenos Aires. Mar del Plata is the second largest city of Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" had apparently the sense of "sea of the Río de la Plata region" or "adjoining sea to the Río de la Plata"...

 to Boris Spassky

Boris Spassky

Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...

, in which Spassky played the Kieseritzky Gambit, Fischer left in tears and promptly went to work at devising a new defense to the King's Gambit. In Fischer's 1961 article, "A Bust to the King's Gambit", he brashly claimed, "In my opinion the King's Gambit is busted. It loses by force." Fischer concluded the article with the famously arrogant line, "Of course White can always play differently, in which case he merely loses differently. (Thank you, Weaver Adams!)" The article became famous.

Remarkably, Fischer later
played the King's Gambit himself with great success, including winning all three tournament games in which he played it. However, he played the Bishop's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4) rather than the King's Knight Gambit (3.Nf3), the only line that he analyzed in his article.

Ideas behind the opening

Fischer called 3...d6 "a high-class waiting move". It allows Black to hold the gambit pawn with ...g5 (unless White plays the immediate 4.h4) while avoiding the Kieseritzky Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.h4 g4 5.Ne5). Fischer asserted that 3...g5 "is inexact because it gives White drawing chances" after 4.h4 g4 5.Ne5 Nf6 6.d4 d6 7.Nd3 Nxe4 8.Bxf4 Bg7 9.c3! (improving on Spassky's 9.Nc3) Qe7 10.Qe2 Bf5 11.Nd2, which, according to Fischer, "leads to an ending where Black's extra pawn is neutralized by White's stranglehold on the dark squares, especially [f4]".

After 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d6 the most common response is 4.d4. If White now tries to force transpositions to Becker Defense (3...h6) or Classical Defense (3...g5) positions, then White can end up in difficulties. Fischer analyzed 4.d4 g5 5.h4 g4 6.Ng5 f6 7.Nh3 gxh3 8.Qh5+ Kd7 9.Bxf4 Qe8! 10.Qf3 Kd8 "and with King and Queen reversed, Black wins easily".

Another popular move is 4.Bc4. Fischer recommended 4...h6 in response, which he dubbed the "Berlin Defence Deferred". Black's third and fourth moves stop the white knight on f3 from moving to the two dangerous squares e5 and g5.

A quite recent idea is 4.d4 g5 5.Nc3. White intends to leave the bishop on f1 for a while, play an improved version of the Hanstein Gambit (3...g5 4.Bc4 Bg7 and later g2-g3), and, after forcing Black's f-pawn to move, develop the queenside with Be3, Qd2, and 0-0-0.

In the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings

Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings

The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings is a classification system for the opening moves in a game of chess. It is presented as a five volume book collection describing chess openings...

, the Fischer Defense is given the code C34.