The Guardian London, Greater London, England Monday, July 17, 1972 - Page 18
Novel Fischer Move by a Correspondent
After 20 moves of the third game of his match with Spassky, Fischer looked set to pull off his victory: but whatever the outcome, his startling conception on his 11th move makes all the haggling seem worthwhile.
Fischer's imaginative 29th move in the first game, be it good or bad, will be much talked about by all future generations of chess players. In this game, he has produced an exciting innovation the validity of which will be closely scrutinized in the next few months.
This eleventh move, apparently allowing Spassky to wreck black's position, is what this match is really all about: to get the world's two greatest chess players to sit down and play. And when the results of that play are as fine as they have been so far, it no longer seems to matter what problems have arisen, and may arise in the future, as long as these two players can be kept playing.
Fischer, it seems, had seen deeper into the position than had Spassky, for his position improved steadily. After 20 moves, the position was clearly favorable for the American, as he not only enjoyed the slight advantage of having the two bishops against bishop and knight, but also had good possibilities for a queen-side flank advance to lever open still more opportunities for his domination of the black squares, which were effectively controlled by the queen and bishop battery.
When the game was adjourned until this evening, Fischer had an extra pawn and superior position; and once again seemed to have the upper hand psychologically. Nikolai Krogius, Spassky's psychologist, said: “It is remarkable that Fischer could come back and play so strongly after all the drama earlier today.”
