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Chess Mon, May 15, 1972 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Playing By Proxy
During the long haggle over the site of the world championship match,which is now finally arranged to start in Reykjavik on July 2, the two principals have been ensconced in separate mountain retreats making in depth studies of each other's games and preparing surprises in the opening.
It is a fair bet that the pawn exchange in the Grunfeld Defence which was played in two previous Spassky-Fischer games, is currently under the microscope on both Fischer's pocket set and the larger sized board where Spassky works on openings with Geller. Some experts believe that Fischer's main technical danger in the match will be his lack of a convincing answer when Spassky plays P-Q4. The diminishing band of Spassky supporters claim that Fischer has lost twice with the Grunfeld and that his other opening favorites, the King's Indian and Benoni are not quite solid enough for a world title match. The counter-argument is that Fischer had good positions from the opening with the Grunfeld and lost only because of middle game errors.
The Grunfeld could be critical for the outcome of the match. Other grandmasters are not also very interested in the opening and in recent tournaments there have been a few instances where players have rehearsed Spassky v. Fischer by proxy. Szabo's win over Hort at Sarajevo illustrates the style which could beat Fischer. A pawn sacrifice lures the black pieces over to the queen's rank, and then White demolishes the black king position with an energetic attack.
