Six Surprising Chess Facts About Bobby Fischer (part six)

1. He had a 50% score against Damiano's Defence
2. He played the Morra Gambit
3. Opponents were more likely to meet Fischer's 1.e4 with 1...e5 than with 1...c5
4. He had a better record as White in double e-pawn openings with the King's Gambit than with 2.Nf3
5. The Exchange Variation of the Spanish was a sideline for Fischer compared with his use of 4.Ba4
6. He had a better score against the Sicilian with Nc3 than with Nf3
Fischer faced 1...c5 in 179 games, playing 2.Nf3 170 times, scoring 73%, and 2.Nc3 nine times, scoring 89%, according to ChessBase's 2019 Mega database.
He is perhaps best-known in the Sicilian for popularising the move Bc4 in Open Sicilians.
In the Closed he championed a system later dubbed the Chameleon Sicilian by GM Andrew Soltis.
Fischer - Boris Spassky
Match 1992, game 17
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6
The choice of seven of Fischer's nine Nc3 opponents. The two exceptions played 2...e6. In all nine games, Fischer played the same third move.
3.Nge2!?
This fits with the normal Closed Sicilian plan of fianchettoing White's kingside bishop. But at the same time White keeps on the agenda the possibility of switching to an Open Sicilian by playing d4. This chameleon-like flexibility is what Soltis drew attention to in a 1982 booklet for Chess Digest.
3...e6 4.g3
This and 4.d4 are almost equally popular in Mega19. Fischer tried both moves.
4...d5 5.exd5 exd5 6.Bg2!?
6.d4!?, although little played, looks a critical alternative. In game 23 of the same match, Fischer tried a Soltis favourite, 6.d3, drawing in 80 moves.
6...d4 7.Nd5
The knight might look precarious here, but it can be supported and, in case of need, can fall back to f4.
7...Nf6 8.Nef4 Nxd5 9.Nxf5 Bd6
9...Be6 is met by 10.Nf4.
10.0-0 0-0 11.d3 Be6
Black has more space, and now sets about evicting White's only trump, the knight.
12.Nf4
Given as a novelty by GM Ľubomír Ftáčnik in Mega19 but, hardly surprisingly, it is not.
12...Bf5 13.h3 Rb8!?
GM Vladimir Epishin preferred 13...Re8 in a win over a 2290 at the 1991 New York open.
14.Bd2 Re8 15.Re1 Rxe1+ 16.Qxe1 Qd7

White needs a plan

*****
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17.g4!?
Arguably White's only active plan, and without it the situation in the centre surely makes him slightly worse.
17...Re8 18.Qd1 Bxf4
Giving up the bishop-pair is also the choice of Stockfish10 and Komodo10. The obvious alternative, 18...Bg6, also loses the bishop-pair (as does 18...Be6) after 19.Nxg6, and then Black is weak on the central light squares.
19.Bxf4 Be6 20.Qf3 Nb4 21.Qxb7 Qxb7 22.Bxb7 Nxc2 23.Rc1 Nb4 24.Be4 Bxa2
Ftáčnik gives 24...c4! 25.dxc4 Bxg4, when Black is close to equal.
25.Bd2
If 25.Rxc4, then 25...Bb1, which is equal according to Ftáčnik.
25...Bd5 26.Bxd5 Nxd5 27.Rxc5 Nb6
Material is level but here, as is often the case, a rook works better with a bishop than with a knight.
28.Kf1 f6 29.Ra5 Re7 30.Bb4 Rd7 31.Bc5 Kf7 32.Ke2 g5?!
This weakens f5 and e4, which is presumably why the engines prefer 32...g6.
33.Kf3
If Black had played 32...g6, then 33.Kf3 could be met by 33...Ke6, and if 34.Ke4, then 34...f5+ 35.gxf5+ gxf5+, evicting the white king from e4.
 Kg6 34.Ke4 h5 35.Bxd4 Re7+ 36.Kf3 h4 37.Bc5 Re1?!
Jettisoning a second pawn for activity, but it was probably better to sit tight.
38.Rxa7 Nd5 39.Bf8 Re8
Spassky may have originally intended ...Rh1, but his king is too weak.
40.Bd6 Re6 41.Rd7 (1-0, 58 moves)