George Duke wrote on Wed, Jul 18, 2012 10:35 PM UTC:
Game three, http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044727. Previous contests Spassky and Fischer had seen Spassky winning three and two Draws. Played 40 yrs. ago July 16, afore game 3 was the first Fischer win between the two. Only this one game was played in closed playing area, separate from spectators, without all the objected cameras.
The Benoni opening played here has the six set moves and the divergencies begin with White move 7. Benoni Defense reached its peak popularity precisely the decade after this match. It seems repugnant to variantists, but they keep track of exact percentages of wins from what White's 7th move is. They have to since they operate in such a narrow realm within the imagined single right set of rules. Spassky's
chosen 7 N f3-d2 wins what percentage of the time, rather unfairly using results before and since this game? 46.6%. Superficially Spassky's choice is best, as only '7 a4' has detectably higher percentage 50%.