King's Gambit, Fischer Defense King's Gambit, Fischer Defense The Fischer Defense to the King's Gambit is a chess opening variation that begins with the moves: Although 3...d6 was previously known, it did not become a major variation until Fischer advocated it in a famous 1961 article in the first issue of the "American Chess Quarterly". In the "Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings", the Fischer Defense is given the code C34. After Bobby Fischer lost a 1960 game at Mar del Plata to Boris Spassky, in which Spassky played the Kieseritzky Gambit, Fischer left in tears and promptly went to work at devising a new defense
World Chess Championship 1975 World Chess Championship 1975 The 1975 World Chess Championship was not played due to a dispute over the match format. Champion Bobby Fischer (United States) was to play Anatoly Karpov (Soviet Union) in Manila, commencing June 1, 1975. Fischer refused to play the then-standard "Best of 24 games" match, and after FIDE were unable to work out a compromise, forfeited his title instead. Karpov was named World Champion by default on April 3, 1975. Two 18-player, single round robin Interzonals were played with the top three from each qualifying for the Candidates Tournament. Leningrad and Petropolis, Brazil were the venues.