Fischer on 1. d4

e4 is "best by test" to quote Fischer, but I'm not sure what he meant. Probably, that he won more with it or liked it better.

He played 1.d4 in his title match vs Spassky several times, so apparently he changed his mind. Case closed.

I think he played 1. c4, and some of those games transposed to the QGD.

NimzoRoy, no he didn't.  Only e4 and c4.  

Actually Fischer did not play 1 d4 in any of the games with Spassky in 1972 but he did play 1 c4 .... 

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Triple crosspost!

Read the posts above, conehead. 3 people have already said that.

In the book "The unknown bobby fischer", fischer played 1.d4 against eugenio gomez in seville in a simul game in 1970 and lost.

He ended up playing QGD by transposition vs Spassky 4x and EO once, although it's true he opened up with 1.c4 in all 5 games. I guess transpositions don't count and he only played QGD because he had no choice in the matter right?

I can only speculate, but I assume he spotted something in Spassky's QGD that made him want to face it. It certainly would catch Boris unaware, after a lifetime of opening with 1.e4. Then he just had to figure out a way to reach the QGD, with opening with that inspid 1.d4..........

I wasn't talking about positions that could arise out of 1. d4 though, I was talking about that specific move itself.  I don't understand the "on principle" part of what Fischer said.  

Ah the pschology in chess. A lasker approach. Maybe Fischer never liked the style of play of the great Lasker but he certainly used the latters approach to combat. (just my opinion based and inspired by reading Benko's "winning with chess psychology" )

I've always loved this quote:

"When I asked Fischer why he had not played a certain move in our game, he replied: "Well, you laughed when I wrote it down"  - Mikhail Tal"

Young Fischer played 1.NF3

Here is the only game I know of where Fischer actually started with 1. d4

http://chesstempo.com/gamedb/game/2779292/ply/1

Insipid game.  I guess that's one reason he avoided it.

Fischer said "1 e4 best by test" and "1 d4 dull & drawish"
Fischer never opened 1 d4 "on principle". Against Spassky in 1972 he did open 1 c4 as a surprise, which transposed to 1 d4 openings, but he stayed true to his principle. The Herceg Novi game was a blitz game.
In 1970 Fischer opened 1 b3 in 4 games and won all 4. He opened 1 Nf3 16 times in 1956-1957.