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 Struggle 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 many biggest gamers of all time,” the group mentioned on the social platform X. He “left an indelible mark on the sport.”
The televised 1972 match with Fischer, on the peak of the Chilly Struggle, grew to become a world sensation and was referred to 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, recognized to be testy and tough, 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 by no means above befriending and mentoring the subsequent era, particularly these of us who, like him, didn’t match comfortably into the Soviet machine.”
Spassky emigrated to France in 1976.
On its web site, the chess federation referred to as Spassky’s match with Fischer “one of the iconic” within the historical past of the sport.
Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric mentioned that Spassky’s secret energy “lay in his colossal ability in adapting himself to the completely different kinds of his opponents,” the Washington Publish reported.
The chess federation referred to as Spassky “the primary genuinely common participant” who “was not a gap specialist, however he excelled in advanced and dynamic middlegame positions the place he was in his aspect.”
On the time of their well-known match, the Soviet Union had compiled an unbroken streak of world chess championships that stretched again a long time.
After his loss, Spassky went residence to a chilly reception within the Soviet Union, the place he had change into a nationwide disappointment, the Publish mentioned. He mentioned he was not allowed to depart the nation, and his marriage, his second, fell aside.
“I really feel at residence on the chessboard,” he was quoted as saying in a recollection of the Reykjavik match printed by the World Chess Corridor of Fame in 2022, the Publish mentioned. “Our chess kingdom doesn’t have borders.”
