He was 88 years old
Russian chess legend Boris Spasski is dead
Updated on February 28, 2025 – 07:47 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Boris Spasski went into chess history with a legendary match for the World Cup. Now he died at the age of 88.
Chess master Boris Spasski died at the age of 88. This was announced by the Russian association on Thursday. From 1969 to 1972 Spasski was the tenth chess world champion. He won the title by winning Tigran Petrosyan with a result of 12.5: 10.5.
However, the match in which he lost the title is particularly remembered. At the 1972 World Cup, he lost to the American Bobby Fischer with 8.5: 10.5. The duel was declared the “competition of the systems” by the media.
After the defeat, Spasski, who had gone into the game as a clear favorite, was sharply criticized in his Soviet homeland. He lost, although numerous Soviet great champions were available as helpers at the tournament, while Fischer started without help. Spasski was accused of not having prepared sufficient preparation.
For the Soviet Union, which dominated chess sports at that time, the defeat was a slap in the face. Spasski himself later admitted that after the defeat, he felt great relief to be rid of this “enormous responsibility”.
The duel in the middle of the Cold War was a template for numerous books, documentaries and films. The novel “Das Damengambit” also deals with it, in 2020 a Netflix series was published on its basis.
The President of the Russian Chess Association, Andrei Filatow, mourned in a message about Spasski: “We have gone a great personality, generations of chess players have studied and still study it. That is a big loss for the country.”
No information became known for the circumstances of death. In 2006 and 2010 Spasski had suffered two strokes. After more than 30 years in France, he has lived in Moscow since 2012.