The Opening that didn't like Bobby Fischer

[Chris Rice]

Interesting and controversial article from Silman arguing that Fischer couldn't play the Grunfeld! When I saw the headline I was sure it was going to be an article about his well documented difficulties against the Winawer so was quite taken aback by this.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/the- ... by-fischer

[Roger de Coverly]

Interesting and controversial article from Silman arguing that Fischer couldn't play the Grunfeld!

Fischer avoided playing the Grunfeld in the 1972 match perhaps to avoid Spassky's treatment of the exchange variation with Bc4 and Ne2. Maybe after his loss to Petrosian, he was wary of Soviet analysis. It's only in the games against Spassky and the loss against Petrosian that he came unstuck. Otherwise the games in MSMG and elsewhere were a user manual on how to play the Grunfeld back in say 1970.

Silman notes that he played a number of draws. Fischer was much better than most of his contemporaries and played almost every game to win, so drawing a number of games becomes more noticeable.

[Stewart Reuben]

Robert Byrne v Bobby US Closed 1963-4. That was a neo-Gruenfeld, not a true one.
I wrote a very long artilcle for Chess Magazine on the tournament. Originally I wrote that the whole game had to be pre-preparation as Bobby had played so quickly. He looked at the draft and exclaimed, 'Do you really think I spent ages studying such a dull line?' So after he left my home, I amended that section.