Modern Classics

Fischer-Spassky, 1972

Fischer-Spassky, World Chess Championship 1972, game 6

After levelling the score in the fifth game of the Match of the Century 2,5-2,5 (see Chapter 16), Fischer took the lead in the next encounter and didn't let it go until the end of the match. The American started the 6th game with the move 1.c4 instead of his beloved 1.e4. For such a scenario Spassky prepared the solid Queen's Gambit, but it turned out that the World Champion didn't remember all the subtleties of the resulting variations. Fischer's handling of the position was exemplary: he skilfully used Spassky's inaccuracies, and, starting with move 18 consequently changed the pawn structure in White's favour. After Spassky's mistaken advance of the central d-pawn Fischer's bishop became clearly superior to his opponent's knight. White took the initiative; Black was forced to defend passively and it turned out that Fischer had enough resources to prepare a decisive attack on the light squares.

An instructive classical example of handling the position with hanging pawns.