Soviet chess grandmaster Boris Spassky, who was famously defeated in the so-called match of the century at the height of the Cold War, has died aged 88, the Chess Federation of Russia said Thursday.
The federation called his death a “great loss to the country”, saying generations of chess players had learned from his matches.
One of the first to react was Soviet grandmaster Anatoly Karpov, who told TASS state news agency: “He was always one of my main idols.”
Spassky is best remembered for his duel with American Bobby Fischer in 1972, which was emblematic of the confrontation between East and West.
The Soviet chess giant lived a checkered life, flitting between top-level clashes against the best players of the era and periods of virtual disappearance.
Born in 1937 in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, Spassky showed prodigious talent early, becoming junior world champion and the youngest grandmaster in history at the time at 18.
