Fischer vs Spassky 1972
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5. Bg5 develops his dark square bishop before e3, and I suppose Fischer wanted to trade his "bad" bishop for Spassky's "good" bishop, a good strategic idea. I doubt it's as simple as that, given the level of play, but that's the general idea. As for Nxd5, Fischer traded knights on d5, not a knight for a pawn.
It's also interesting to note that Fischer opened this game with c4 instead of e4. That was a huge psychological blow to Spassky. If I remember correctly, Spassky took a full 45 minutes for his first move.
That makes perfect sense @jhubchess thank you
Anytime friend
5. Bg5 is just normal development. White wants to develop the king's bishop by playing e3 but if 5. e3 then the queen's bishop will be restricted. Therefore white usually first moves Bc1 outside of the pawn chain by playing 5. Bg5 (or 5. Bf4) and only then does e3. Nothing too deep there. Actually the fact that white is able to develop his bishop outside of the pawn chain whereas Bc8 is hemmed in is perhaps the main reasons white can hope for some advantage in QGD.
Moving the bishop second time with Bh4 is not any huge concession by white since it's not clear how much h6 helps black. Whether black wants to insert h6 and Bh4 very much depends on his future plans. In some positions inserting those moves is useful whereas in others it just helps white. It's a difficult decision (but of course you don't have to take it over the board as these days the theory has been worked out quite extensively). Also, when playing 6... h6 black has to reckon with 7. Bxf6 which is quite possible alternative (white gives up the bishop pair but gains a tempo for his development).
Megaman1102 wrote:
I'm also confused by Fischer's next move of 10. Nxd5 because Spassky responds with exd5. Why would Fischer trade a knight for a pawn?
Fischer didn't trade a knight for a pawn but for another knight. As for why, white's basic idea in this variation is to use the open c-file to attack the backward c-pawn. If black plays c5 (like Spassky did in the game) then white takes on c5 at suitable moments hoping to attack the arising hanging pawns. This game is a classic example of playing against the hanging pawns.
Of course there is also the question of timing. If we switch the order of moves with 10. Rc1 Bb7 11. Nxd5 then black has 11... Bxd5. So usually (this is a well known theoretical position with countless GM games) white prefers to start with 10. Nxd5 in order to force black to recapture with the pawn. This makes 11... Bb7 somewhat less desirable (although it's still a serious alternative) since the d5-pawn would block the bishop's diagonal.
Hello everyone!
Despite my rating on this site, on which I have not tried very hard, although still low, I am rated 1,200. I was going over the iconic "Best by Protest" 1972 World Championship game between Fischer and Spassky, and a question arose. The game goes like this: