Fischer met 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 with the mainline 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5.
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| Position after 7.Bg5 |
Black attacks the advanced knight with 7...a6
8.Bxf6!?
The main move is 8.Na3 but the text is a respectable alternative.
8...gxf6 9.Na3
A)
9...f5
Stockfish12's choice.
10.Bc4 Bg7?!
Critical seems to be 10...Qg5, when the main reply is 11.g3 but my main analysis engines prefer 11.Bd5 with an unclear position. One point of 11.Bd5 is that 11...Qxg2 can be met by 12.exf5 Qg5 13.Nc4 Bxf5 14.Bxc6+ bxc6 15.Nxd6+ Bxd6 16.Qxd6, when the engines reckon Black has to find 16...Rd8! 17.Qxc6+ Kf8! 18.Rd1 Kg7, after which Black's active pieces compensate for the pawn-minus, according to Komodo11.01, but Stockfish12 comes to prefer White.
11.Qh5 0-0
12.exf5 Nd4
13.Bd3
White had a large advantage, according to the engines, in Fischer - Andrew Soltis, Manhattan (New York) Blitz 1971 (1-0, 25 moves).
B)
9...d5!?
This is not as weird as it may appear at first sight.
10.Nxd5 Bxa3
11.bxa3
The point of Black's play, which was pioneered by Jorge Pelikán, is that White's queenside pawns are a mess.
11...Be6
12.Bc4 Qa5+
13.Qd2 0-0-0
A key moment. Pelikán preferred exchanging queens, 13...Qxd2+ 14.Kxd2, and then castling long, 14...0-0-0, although the queenless middlegame is slightly better for White, according to the engines.
14.Rd1 Qxa3
15.0-0
Black has regained his pawn but White has the safer king.
15...Rhg8
The engines prefer 15...f5!? but reckon White may be slightly better after 16.Qe2 (Stockfish12) or 16.exf5 (Komodo11.01).
16.Qe3!
Despite having the safer king, Fischer first more-or-less forces queens off ...
16...Qxe3
17.fxe3!
... and then recaptures in a way that activates his king's rook along the f file.
17...Kb8
Leonid Shamkovich - Alexander Jongsma, IBM Amsterdam 1968, saw 17...Rg4 18.Bd3 f5 19.Nf6 Rh4 20.exf5 Bxa2 21.Be4 with a large advantage for White, according to the engines (1-0, 47 moves).
18.Bb3!?
The straightforward 18.Rxf6 is also good for White.
18...Rg6 19.Nb6 Kc7 20.Rxd8 Nxd8 21.Nd5 Bxd5 22.Bxd5
White was better in Fischer - Héctor Rossetto, Buenos Aires 1960, according to the engines (1-0, 44 moves).
C)
9...b5
This is easily Black's most-popular response, but it was not faced by Fischer. The main line runs 10.Nd5 f5 11.Bd3 Be6 12.0-0 Bxd5 13.exd5 Ne7
More than 1,000 games have reached this position in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database.
White faces a major choice between grabbing a pawn by 14.Nxb5!?, which gives Black a strong initiative with 14...Bg7 (14...Nxd5? 15.Bxf5; 14...axb5?? 15.Bxb5+ Nc6 16.Bxc6+ Ke7 17.Bxa8) 15.Nc3 e4 (Stockfish12 gives Black full compensation, but Komodo11.01 prefers White), or playing less greedily, eg 14.c4 Bg7 15.Rb1 e4 16.Be2 (again Stockfish12 reckons Black is equal, but Komodo11.01 gives White a small edge).
Black develops the king's bishop with 7...Be7?
This is the most-popular alternative to 7...a6 - there are 274 examples of the move in Mega20 - but White wins a pawn by force.
8.Bxf6
A)
8...gxf6
9.Nd5 0-0
10.Nxe7+ Qxe7
11.Qxd6
Black has no compensation for being a pawn down.
B)
8...Bxf6
9.Nxd6+
Both 9...Ke7 and 9...Kf8 can be met by 10.Nxc8(+), when again Black has no compensation for a pawn.
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