After Bobby Fischer lost a 1960 game[4] at Mar del Plata to Boris Spassky, in which Spassky played the Kieseritzky Gambit, Fischer left in tears[5] and promptly went to work at devising a new defense to the King's Gambit.

[8][9] Fischer never tested this published analysis as Black in a tournament game; he never again faced the gambit after his 1960 loss to Spassky.

(improving on Spassky's 9.Nc3) Qe7 10.Qe2 Bf5 11.Nd2, which, according to Fischer, "leads to an ending where Black's extra pawn is neutralized by White's stranglehold on the dark squares, especially [f4]".

This variation received a high-class examination in a game between two world champions: Boris Spassky vs. Anatoly Karpov, at Berlin TV 1982, played at a one-hour-game format in an event for West German television.

White intends to leave the bishop on f1 for a while, play an improved version of the Hanstein Gambit (3...g5 4.Bc4 Bg7 and later g2–g3), and, after forcing Black's f4-pawn to move, develop the queenside with Be3, Qd2, and 0-0-0.