Reigning chess world champion Boris Spassky, left, of Russia, and worldwide grandmaster Bobby Fischer of america, are seen throughout a recreation on the XIX World Chess Olympiad in Siegen, Germany, Sept. 20, 1970.
Heinz Ducklau/AP
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Heinz Ducklau/AP
MOSCOW — Boris Spassky, a Soviet-era world chess champion who misplaced his title to American Bobby Fischer in a legendary 1972 match that grew to become a proxy for Chilly Conflict rivalries, died Thursday in Moscow. He was 88.
The demise of the one-time chess prodigy was introduced by the Worldwide Chess Federation, the sport’s governing physique. No trigger was given.
Spassky was “one of the greatest players of all time,” the group stated on the social platform X. He “left an indelible mark on the game.”
The televised 1972 match with Fischer, on the top of the Chilly Conflict, grew to become a global sensation and was generally known as the “Match of the Century.”
When Fischer received the worldwide chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, the then-29-year-old chess genius from Brooklyn, New York, introduced the U.S. its first world chess title.
Fischer, identified to be testy and troublesome, died in 2008. After his victory of Spassky, he later forfeited the title by refusing to defend it.
Former world champion Garry Kasparov wrote on X that Spassky “was never above befriending and mentoring the next generation, especially those of us who, like him, didn’t fit comfortably into the Soviet machine.”
Spassky emigrated to France in 1976.
On its web site, the chess federation known as Spassky’s match with Fischer “one of the most iconic” within the historical past of the sport.
Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric stated that Spassky’s secret power “lay in his colossal skill in adapting himself to the different styles of his opponents,” the Washington Submit reported.
The chess federation known as Spassky “the first genuinely universal player” who “was not an opening specialist, but he excelled in complex and dynamic middlegame positions where he was in his element.”
On the time of their well-known match, the Soviet Union had compiled an unbroken streak of world chess championships that stretched again many years.
After his loss, Spassky went house to a chilly reception within the Soviet Union, the place he had change into a nationwide disappointment, the Submit stated. He stated he was not allowed to go away the nation, and his marriage, his second, fell aside.
“I feel at home at the chessboard,” he was quoted as saying in a recollection of the Reykjavik match revealed by the World Chess Corridor of Fame in 2022, the Submit stated. “Our chess kingdom does not have borders.”
