The story, briefly, is that Fischer lost to Boris Spassky on the black side of a King's Gambit at Argentina's 1960 Mar del Plata International.
Not only did he lose, but he lost relatively quickly - 29 moves - and apparently was reduced to tears (Fischer was 17 years old).
The following year, in the first issue of The American Chess Quarterly, he wrote A Bust To The King's Gambit.
The article was an instant success, not least thanks to Fischer's trenchant writing style, including: "In my opinion the King's Gambit is busted. It loses by force."
He concluded his analysis: "Of course White can always play differently, in which case he merely loses differently (Thank you, Weaver Adams!)."*
In 1963, at the US championship in New York, Fischer shocked the chess world by using the King's Gambit to beat Larry Evans.
But he did so by meeting 2...exf4 with 3.Bc4, which became his favourite weapon.
However Fischer twice tried 3.Nf3, with one of his opponents essaying Fischer's 'refutation'.
And what of Spassky? He apparently did not believe Fischer's Bust, as is evidenced by his continued success with the King's Gambit.
And what of Spassky? He apparently did not believe Fischer's Bust, as is evidenced by his continued success with the King's Gambit.
Here is probably a good point to interject a few words of caution.
When researching a subject such as this, it pays to double-check and, if possible, triple-check sources as myths are easily created and often repeated.
For example, a discussion at Chess.com of Romantic Openings includes the statement: "In 1960 (Mar del Plata) Spassky overwhelmed Fischer with a King's Gambit. Fischer wrote an article for American Chess Quarterly detailing his improved plan "refuting" the gambit, but Spassky used it again to beat Bronstein and Karpov. In fact, over his career Spassky won all 16 King's Gambits he played."
Whenever I see a statement as bold as this one, I instinctively think: "Can that really be true?" And if it is true, why on earth did Spassky not play the King's Gambit every chance he got?
A simple search of any decent database answers these questions.
ChessBase's 2023 Mega database has 31 games with Spassky on the white side of a King's Gambit. His score of +19=12-0 (81%), including wins against Furman and Najdorf as well as Bronstein and Karpov, is impressive, even though it does include games from simuls, but is not perfect.
Incidentally, the same database shows that all five times Spassky was on the black side of a King's Gambit, he won - perhaps that had something to do with his preference for 2.Nf3.
*Adams wrote a series of books and articles claiming White should win after 1.e4.
to be continued
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