The aim of the Austrian Attack is to take advantage of Black's hypermodern approach by establishing a broad pawn centre early in the game.

[1] Black will often castle early and attempt to find counterplay with c7–c5, or in some cases, e7–e5,[2] or the development of the queenside knight.

[4] Siegbert Tarrasch successfully employed the Austrian Attack against Rudolf Charousek in 1896, securing a win in just 17 moves.

The game proceeded as follows: By playing 21...Qe5 instead of 21...Rf8–c8, Fischer offered the exchange sacrifice as a means of blunting Spassky's kingside attack.

The game ended on move 45 owing to draw by agreement despite Spassky having a slight material advantage.