I have seen some online discussions of 1.d4 d6 where it’s referred to as the Pillsbury Defense, Rat Defense or Wade Defense. But, Fischer, writing in the September 1969 issue of Boys’ Life, used the term "Rubbish" or "Rat" defense for another line of play: 1.e4 g6.
This is the Modern Defense, or as it used to be called, the Robatsch Defense. The Modern is closely related to the Pirc Defense with the primary difference being that in the Modern, black delays developing his N to f6. The delay of ...Nf6 attacking white's pawn on e4 gives white the option of blunting the g7-bishop with c2–c3. Of course there are numerous possibilities for transposition between the openings.
In the article, Fischer stated he had dropped by the US Junior Championship which was taking place at the McAlpine Hotel in New York City where he saw some very talented young players in action. The player that impressed Fischer the most was 16-year old Kenneth Rogoff who is today a world famous economist.
What impressed Fischer the most was Rogoff’s self-assured style and the fact that he knew exactly what he was trying to do in his games.
Rogoff scored 6-1 to win the invitational United States Junior Championship by the widest margin ever in its four-year history. First prize was an all-expenses-paid trip to the World Junior Championship in Stockholm.
Rogoff won his first two games and held the lead throughout the tournament. Going into the final round, his score was 5-1 and theoretically James Tarjan with 4-2, had a chance to tie for first. Tarjan was paired against John Jacobs while Rogoff was playing Steven Spencer. Tarjan lost and Rogoff won and became the youngest player to ever win the championship. Quite an achievement for someone who had only been playing tournament chess for two and a half years.
Sal Matera and James Tarjan finished second and third, respectively, on tie breaks. The difference was that in thr fifth round Matera had handed Rogoff his only loss. Matera, the 1967 US Junior Champion, won an all expense paid trip to the US Open in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Greg DeFotis drew five of his games. Both he and Tarjan were members of the US Student Team which would be playing in Dresden, East Germany in a couiple of months.
John Jacobs and Norman Weinstein finished in that order on tiebreaks. They were followed by Randy Mills and Spencer.
Rogoff’s opponent in this game was Steven Spencer. The Mechanics’ Institute’s Chess Room Newsletter #752 has more details on this interesting character from the past HERE.
Fischer gave his readers some pointers. First, don’t turnoff you mind when it’s your opponent’s move. Use this time to think about your next move and when you opponent does move, always ask yourself why did he make that move? CJS Purdy (whom Fischer thought was a great teacher) also suggested the same thing, mentioning that when your opponent is thinking, it’s a good time to make a positional evaluation.
Other Fischer advice was try to control open files with your Rs, especially if there’s only one.
He also advised his readers, in the middlegame, whether you’re doing well or poorly, don’t give up because there’s always a chance you will have a flash of brilliance or your opponent will make a mistake.
The reason is that the game is ever changing and (tactical) opportunities can suddenly appear at any time. I think he may have gotten that from Purdy, too, because Purdy emphasized the same point many times...tactical opportunities can pop up in both superior and inferior positions. Note that when Purdy talked about tactics he always emphasized sound tactics! Of course, it your dead lost you might as well try an unsound one.
In the article Fischer also plugged Larry Evans’ book Chess - Beginner to Expert telling his readers they should study the book. Personally, I wouldn’t waste my money on it.
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