ANew York Times, New York, New York, Thursday, January 06, 1972 - Page 34
Chess: Handing Fischer a Move Is Hardly a Prudent Idea by Al Horowitz
The Center Counter Game, below, in which Bobby Fischer met Karl Robatsch, an international master and former Austrian champion, was played at the Varna Olympiad of 1962. Right from the start, after the first move, 1. P-K4 P-Q4, White and Black engaged in an exchange. Much more than material was swapped. There were tangibles against intangibles—force, time and space.
For with the head-on collision between the king pawn and queen pawn, after White plays 2. PxP, Black will recapture and the queen file will accrue to the second player. But in turn, when Black retakes 2. … QxP, he will be vulnerable to attack with 3. N-QB3, gaining a full tempo for White.
Thus, practically at the start, Black sacrifices a move and it is a question whether anyone in the world can spot the mighty Fischer a move.
In recent years the defender has hardly relied on the Center Counter deployment for fair prospects. One game, played in the team tournament of Prague, 1931, went as follows: 1. P-K4 P-Q4; 2. PxP QxP; 3. N-QB3 Q-QR4; 4. P-Q4 N-KB3; 5. N-B3 B-KN5; 6. P-KR3 B-R4; 7. P-KN4 B-N3; 8. N-K5 P-B3; 9. N-B4 Q-B2; 10. Q-B3 BxP; 11. B-B4 Q-Q1; 12. Q-K2, Black was in trouble. There was not much to be done about 13. N-Q6ch.
With 4. P-N3, Black suggests a fianchetto development, a deployment frowned upon in early days.
Better than 6. … N-KB3 is 6. … P-B4. The settling of the medial area before undertaking any plans is important.
The move 9. P-KR4 pawnstorms the hostile king. And with 11. B-Q3 many of White's minor men are poised in the direction of Black's king.
Then 13. P-KN4 gathers new impetus. For if now 14. … NxP; 15. QR-N1, Black is finished.
Black resigns, for if 20. … BxB; 21. RxRch mates or costs Black's queen.
The Sicilian Defense, in a game between Wolfgang Unzicker, a West German international master, and Fischer, also from the Varna Olympiad, was short, sweet and to the point. Any early combination by Fischer not only collected a pawn—sufficient for victory—but also jeopardized the hostile king.
[Diagram]
Here the opening was book, familiar to Fischer, who had engaged it before against the former world champion, Mikhail Tal of the Soviet Union. The line also was the subject of analysis at the time, and Unzicker was bereft of its potentiality.
At Curaçao, for example, the Soviet grandmaster Yefim Geller proposed 15. K-R1, instead of 15. BxN, and any player who becomes a specialist in the line must know all the variations and sub-subvariations.
With 6. … P-K4, Black forces a retreat of White's king knight that cramps White's queenside. Fischer then expects his queenside expansion will gain more ground in the medial area.
After 17. BxB, White has already dissipated his first-move initiative. He should run for 17. NxB PxN; 18. Q-Q3 and bishops of opposite colors, which tends toward a draw. But he is apparently psychologically confused by the white pieces, which usually are endowed with the initiative.
White soon falls victim to 26. RxBP, not only costing a pawn, but also forcing a mating intrusion.
Robert James Fischer vs Karl Robatsch
Varna ol (Men) fin-A (1962), Varna BUL, rd 4, Sep-30
Scandinavian Defense: Ilundain Variation (B01) 1-0
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044011
Wolfgang Unzicker vs Robert James Fischer
Varna ol (Men) fin-A (1962), Varna BUL, rd 7, Oct-04
Sicilian Defense: Najdorf. Opocensky Variation (B92) 0-1
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008416
