I have been looking a bit at the Fischer System lately (for White), and came up with an interesting idea. I don't think it's groundbreaking or anything, but an interesting practical weapon nonetheless. I thought that after 1.c4 c5 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.h4!? was interesting. My idea is that after the most played (and thematic) move 6...h6 we can play into the common isolani lines after 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nb5 d5 9.cxd5 exd5 10.O-O Nge7 11.Bf4 O-O 12.Nfxd4, etc. 

My thought was that eventually White would grab a free tempo with Qd2, and that perhaps the insertion of h4/h6 favors White somewhat. Maybe White is a smidge better, or at least he can claim that he's reached a position that is somewhat atypical of the Fischer System. The only game to feature 6.h4 and 7.d4 is recent, and favored White for sure:



Black can play 6...h5 instead, but then maybe White should prefer 11.Bg5, I dunno, really just started to look at it. Thoughts?

I have a question, or perhaps, a proposal for discussion here --

What about this deviation by black on move 6...   


1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. Nc3 e6 

6. d3 d5 

Before White has the chance to play Bg5.

Any thoughts ?

Yes, Watson's coverage of this line was quite good, and reasonably convincing from a practical perspective (like you said).

Ametanoitos wrote on 02/20/14 at 22:47:10:


This was always my opinion as well. When I looked at it a year ago or so, I thought White had annoying play and reasonable practical chances, but that Black could prove equality with precise play. Surprise!

Thank you, thank you, thank you people! 
By the way, looking at games like these, one may think they're not substantial. After all, draws on 13-th move?!?
In fact, a good correspondence chess player spends many, many days to analyze the posible continuations. And the fact that both players agreed to draw, after all, means that the position is completely equal. Equal, yes, but full of life for an OTB game. 

fling wrote on 01/13/14 at 16:30:58:

You won't be disappointed. Here are my last correspondence (mini) games:





This line seems to be completely harmless. I've spent hours and hours to find even a tiny edge for black or white, with no success. It seems my opponents came to the same conclusion. 

fling wrote on 01/12/14 at 21:40:33:


You said it here already:

fling wrote on 11/30/12 at 12:40:28: