Posted on 02/27/2025 6:09:05 PM PST by Libloather
Boris Spassky, legendary Russian chess player and the 10th World Chess Champion who rose to international fame in the 1972 “Match of the Century” against American Bobby Fischer, died Thursday in Moscow at age 88.
The icon’s death was announced by the Russian Chess Federation, who mourned the loss of one of the 20th century’s most influential chess players.
“A great personality has passed away; generations of chess players learned and continue to learn from his games and work. A great loss for the country,” Andrei Filatov, president of the Russian Chess Federation said in a statement to Russian outlet Tass.
His cause of death was not announced. Spassky had been confined to a wheelchair since suffering a debilitating stroke in 2010.
Arkady Dvorkovich, president of chess’ governing body FIDE, called Spassky “one of the greatest players of the Soviet era and the world” and a “true gentleman,” in a statement issued Thursday.
Spassky, born in the Soviet Union’s Leningrad — now St. Petersburg, became chess World Champion in 1969, becoming the face of the daunting Russian chess machine.
He famously defended his title against American Bobby Fischer in the “Match of the Century” in 1972 — a match which, played at the height of the Cold War, became a cultural proxy battle between the US and Soviet Russia.
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Nice quote
Frog 🐸 is wrong
Spassky got to live a DIGNIFIED life after the chess match, while Fischer was a victim of the Neocons, decades ago, and was left without a home until Iceland took him in (where he later died).
mid- late 70s it was a surprisingly hard to beat on the higher levels
and it still works.
it came out about the same time the first led watches became affordable.
https://uniquewatchguide.com/led-watches.html
I’m pretty sure that is not true but I’ll look it up.
I don’t think they ever played a match. Individual games, yes.
I recall one match where analysts sweated it out while Fisher took a long time to move. The anylists projected this move and that move; and Fisher moved a piece from one side of the board to the other and sealed the win. The experts were amazed. So was I and millions who watched, as I recall on PBS.
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