Grandmaster games · World Championship match, game 6 1972
Fischer's Queen's Gambit
Fischer plays the Queen's Gambit for the first time in a serious game, wins by squeezing Spassky with e4 and f5, and Spassky applauds.
The setting
Reykjavik, 23 July 1972. The match stands at 2.5 points each after Spassky won game 1 and received game 2 by forfeit, then lost games 3 and 5 and drew game 4. Before the match began, Spassky's team debated whether Fischer would play something other than 1.e4. In game 6 Fischer opens 1.c4 and steers into a Queen's Gambit, an opening Spassky had met many times from the other side.
Why study it
Nothing in this game looks dramatic until you see where it ends. Fischer's mind shows how a quiet position is made to move: the bishop pair traded, a bishop provoked, the e4 break chosen at the right moment, and every later pawn push tied to the one before. Spassky's mind shows the other side: why 16...Ra7, 18...Qf8 and 20...d4 each felt like holding on, and how those three moves left Black with nothing to do except wait.
Live it from inside a mind
Each player speaks in the first person, in a voice of their own: what they see, what they fear, the lines they calculate, why they choose. Switch minds at any move.
Bobby Fischer
White · United States · 2785 at the time · peak 2785
29 years old and the challenger, rated 2785, a record 125 points above the world champion. The Queen's Gambit had never been part of Fischer's serious play as White before this game. Fischer became the 11th world champion by winning this match.
Boris Spassky
Black · Soviet Union · 2660 at the time · peak 2690
35 years old and the reigning world champion, a universal player who handled sharp and quiet positions alike. Spassky chose the Tartakower Defence, a line Spassky had never lost with.
Game six, and I have White. The match is level at two and a half points each: I lost the first game, forfeited the second and won games three and five. Today I leave 1.e4 behind and try the Queen's Gambit, an opening I have never played as White in a serious game. Spassky knows it from both sides. I intend to out-think Spassky inside it.
Game six, and I have Black against a player who has won two of the last three. The match is level at two and a half points each, after my win in game one, the forfeit and two losses since. I expect 1.e4, but we discussed other first moves. Whatever comes, I will play the Tartakower, the defence I know best, and I will not hurry.
The game in 6 chapters
- 1
A Queen's Gambit by transposition moves 1–10
Fischer opens 1.c4, 2.Nf3 and 3.d4, and the game becomes a Queen's Gambit Declined. Spassky chooses the Tartakower set-up with ...b6. The bishops and a pair of knights come off on d5 and e7, leaving a level position with the c-file open.
- 2
Targets on the queenside moves 11–17
Rc1, Qa4 and Qa3 put the queen on the a3 to f8 diagonal. 14.Bb5 provokes ...a6, and after dxc5 bxc5 and castling, the rook on a8 must go to a7. The bishop returns to e2 and the knight finally leaves b8.
- 3
Nd4 and the e4 break moves 18–21
The pin on the c5 pawn makes 18.Nd4 impossible to capture. Black's queen steps to f8, Fischer takes on e6, and 20.e4 d4 21.f4 leaves White with the bishop, the f-file and the centre.
- 4
The squeeze on e6 moves 22–26
22.e5 shuts the centre and takes f6 from the knight. Bc4 and Qh3 attack e6 twice, Black defends with Kh8 and Nf8, and 26.f5 opens the f-file.
- 5
Rooks on the f-file moves 27–33
Rxf5 and Rcf1 double on the f-file. The knight goes to h7, Black doubles rooks on the seventh, and 31.e6 takes d7 and f7 away from them. The queen reaches e5 and Black can only move the queen.
- 6
Waiting, then the sacrifice moves 34–41
White improves the rooks while Black shuffles the queen between d8 and e8. 36.Bd3 attacks h7, 37.Qe4 prepares Rf7, and when the knight attacks the queen with 37...Nf6, 38.Rxf6 ends the game. 41.Qf4 wins by force.