No doubt Fischer, his teammates and the spectators were expecting and easy win for Fischer especially since he had the white pieces. That's not to imply that Munoz was a "weak" player!
According to Chessmetrics estimated ratings, Fischer's rating (a little over 2700) put him in the world's top ten. Munoz' estimated rating of about 2486 didn't even put him in the world's top 200 rated players. Still, a rating just shy of 2500 meant Munoz was a pretty good player, probably near IM strength.
It's possible that Munoz and his teammates were not so pessimistic about his chances as everybody else. Remember, in those days there weren't any databases or even Informators, the renown Yugoslav books with about 600 games that were published twice a year. So, there was no way for Fischer to have known of two interesting previously played games by Munoz in which he had beaten Bent Larsen and Fredrik Olafsson in the Student World Team Championship in Iceland in 1957, or the draw he achieved against William Lombardy in the same event. The Ecuadorian master did have some impressive scalps!
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| Cesar Munoz |
During the game, Fischer had to work hard in a very complicated game that he ended up losing. They say that as the game progressed more and more spectators and players approached the table and the silence was heavy. Fischer was described as pale when he resigned and signed the scoresheet.
Fischer had never lost against a Dragon although he had yielded one draw. Besides that, in the 1959 Interzonal at Portoroz, Fischer defeated Bent Larsen in a Dragon that was good enough to make it into My 60 Memorable Games.
Cesar Munoz had a relatively short chess career; it lasted from 1951 to 1969 when he abandoned chess to dedicate himself to other activities, namely President of the National Sports Federation of Ecuador and the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee, where he developed an excellent program.
In the following game Munoz adopted the Dragon Variation which at the time was considered highly questionable because of the Yugoslav Attack. At move 16 he put his Queen in a precarious position and before Fischer realized that he must proceed with caution, Munoz had obtained a winning attack.
Robert Fischer–Cesar Munoz0–1B77Leipzig Olympiad Qualifying B GroupLeipzig GDR18.10.1960Stockfish 14.1
Sicilian Dragon: Yugoslav Attack 1.e4 c5 2.f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 g6 At the time this game was played the Dragon Variation had almost
disappeared because no reliable defense had been found to counter the Yugoslav
Attack. Fischer didn't have a very high opinion of the Dragon. In commenting
on Fischer-Larsen, Portoroz 1958 in My 60 Memorable Games he gave his winning
formula..."Pry open the h-file, sac, sac... mate!" In this game his formula
didn't work! 6.e3 g7 7.f3 0-0 8.d2 c6 9.c4 a6 10.b3 a5 10...xd4 11.xd4 b5 12.0-0-0 d7 13.h4 a5 14.h5 a4 15.d5 c8 White is much
better. Klein,D (2366)-Mellema,A (2131) Amsterdam 2011 10...a5 is likely
the best move here. 11.h6 xh6 12.xh6 e5 13.de2 b5 14.d2 b4 15.a4 xb3 16.axb3 a5 17.0-0-0 a6 18.h4 e6 19.h5 e7 20.g4 d7 In this
complicated position the chances are equal. Hou,Y (2603)-Nakamura,H (2769)
Wijk aan Zee 2013 11.0-0-0 d7 11...d8 12.b1 e8 13.h4 h5 14.hg1 c7 15.g4 hxg4 16.fxg4 b5 17.dxb5 axb5 White has a winning attack. Mazzoni,
G-O'Hare,E Tel Aviv 1964 12.b1 ac8 13.g4 This is somewhat impatient. At
the time the usual continuation was 13.Nxc6 13.xc6 and on either 13...
Bxc6 or 13...Rxc6 then 14.Nd5 is very good for white. bxc6 14.d5 xd2 14...d8 15.b6 e8 16.c7 xc7 16...d8 17.e5 dxe5 18.d5 e8 19.xf6+ xf6 20.xd7 with what is a likely a winning advantage. 17.xc7 c8 18.b6
White is clearly better. 15.xe7+ h8 16.xd2 is good for white. 13...e5 14.h6 14.d5 would have been somewhat better. After d8 15.xf6+ xf6 16.h4 c4 17.xc4 xc4 18.e2 a5 19.h5 White has a strong attack. 14...c4 15.xc4 xc4 16.b3 This is an improvement over 16.Nd5 which was
usual at the time. 16.d5 xd2 16...d8 This not as good as it was in
the previous variation because after 17.xg7 xg7 18.xf6 black can't
recapture with the B and must further weaken his position. exf6 19.h4
with what should prove to be a decisive advantage. 17.xe7+ h8 18.xg7+ xg7 19.xd2 e8 20.d5 and white has won a P. 16...e5 This places the
Q in a rather precarious position, but at the same time it can take part in
the activities on the Q-side. No doubt Fischer would have preferred to have
seen the tame retreat 16...Qe8 17.h4 At the moment the chance of making
headway with the advance h5 is not possible. Also, there is no way of
profitting by trapping black's Q, so white's best chance is to tend to the
threats that are looming on the c-file. 17.xg7 was much better. xg7 18.g5 h5 19.d5 e6 20.e3 c6 21.a5 c7 22.g4 White has the advantage on
both flanks. 17.f4 Does not trap the Q and after xh6 18.fxe5 xd2 19.xd2 xc3 20.exf6 c7 21.fxe7 e8 white can claim no advantage. 17...fc8 This pins the N and creates the possibility of ...Rxc2+, but Munoz misses a
promising sacrifice of the exchange. 17...xc3 18.bxc3 xg4 19.xg7 19.fxg4 xe4 20.d4 xc3+ with a won position for black. 21.a1 xd4 22.xd4 xh6 19...xg7 20.fxg4 xe4 21.d4 xc3+ 22.b2 xd1+ 23.xd1 xd4+ 24.xd4 In this materially unbalanced position both sides would have chances. 18.f4 Fischer is hoping to exchange h-Pawns, but once again he does not
appreciate the danger of allowing black to keep his dark squared B! 18.xg7 keeps the advantage after xg7 19.he1 xc3 20.bxc3 e6 21.f4 and white
is better. 18...e6 19.h5 It would have been better to get rid of the B
with 19.Bh6 b5 Well played! Of course opening up the K-side with
19...gxh5 would be an awful choice. Now black's counterplay becomes
significant. 20.hxg6 fxg6 20...hxg6 is wrong. 21.h6 h8 22.h2
and black is in grave danger. b4 23.g5 g7 24.d5 xc2 25.xf6+ exf6 26.h7+ f8 with what should prove to be a winning advantage. 27.f4 21.h6 h8 22.e5 Fischer is playing fire by playing for a win, but
doing so is very dangerous. 22.h2 This does not work with the file closed.
b4 23.d5 xd5 24.xd5 xc2 and white must abandon his attack and go on
the defensive leaving black with the advantage. The best line being... 25.d2 xd2 26.xd2 f7 27.xb4 e6 28.c1 b8 Black is much better. 22.c1
adding extra protection to the c-Pawn was suggested by Hans Kmoch and the
suggestion is confirmed by Stockfish. f7 23.e2 The extra protection
allows this N to get into play. e6 23...a5 This is interesting! 24.xa5 a4 25.d2 e6 26.ed4 c4 27.f5 b4 27...gxf5 28.gxf5 e8 29.cg1+ f7 with unclear complications. 28.e3 ca8 29.xc4 xc4 30.d3 f7 31.c3 bxc3 32.xc3 xa2 black is better. 24.ed4 equals. 22...b4 Black is
winning. 22...dxe5 23.g5 b4 24.gxf6 bxc3 25.xd7 xd7 26.xd7 xf6 27.bxc3 xc3 White has won a piece although the position is tricky. 23.exf6 23.e2 xc2 24.xb4 xe5 leaves white's pieces scattered and uncoordinated. 23...bxc3 24.h2 The dream of attacking on the h-file is just that...a
dream. As Kmoch observed, there is no continuaion of any promise. xf6 25.g5 f7 26.e2 cxb2 27.xe7 xe7 28.xe7 xc2 29.xd6 Munoz demonstrates
flawless technique in bringing home the win. a4 30.g5 f2 31.e3 xf3 32.d4 xb3 33.axb3 xd4 34.xd4 xb3 35.d2 cb8 36.d7 a3 Fischer resigned. 0–1
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