The Russian Chess Federation announced on Thursday that Soviet chess grandmaster Boris Spassky, who died at the age of 88, during the famous Cold War.
“10th World Champion Boris Spassky died at the age of 88,” the federal government called it “a great loss for the country.”
The statement did not say when he died or what caused the time.
Spassky remembers best in his duel with American Bobby Fisher in 1972.
Cold War Dueling was the subject of numerous books, documentaries and films. Most notably, it inspired Walter Tevis's novel The Queen's Gambit, adapted to the 2020-acclaimed Netflix series.
Spassky became a world champion in 1969, serving as the title until playing matches that defined his career, facing quirky American geniuses.
As the Soviet Union has dominated the game for years, Spassky faced a must-see situation and initially took the lead.
However, the Americans rove to win, finishing an uninterrupted streak of the Soviet world champions since 1948.
Spassky showed great sportsmanship to praise Fisher after losing his sixth game.
The loss was a slap in the face for Moscow, but Spassky admitted that it would be safe to remove “huge responsibility” decades later.
Born in Leningrad, St. Petersburg in 1937, Spassky showed his incredible talent early, becoming the junior world champion at 6pm and the youngest grandmaster in history.
He represented France in three Chess Olympiads in 1984, 1986 and 1988, and was seen performing in Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris in the 1990s.
His health deteriorated in the early 2000s, and after disappearing from Paris in August 2012, he resurfaced in Moscow that October.
“My time in France ran the course, so it was my desire to return to Russia. It was time to start a new stage. I realized it was time to leave,” Spassky said at the time.
