• Russian chess grandmaster Boris Spassky has died at the age of 88.

• He was the 10th World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969-1972, when he lost it to American Bobby Fischer in Reykjavik.

• 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.

• He said he learned to play chess at the age of five in an orphanage.

• Having made a strong impression, he found himself in the shadow of another rising figure in Soviet chess, Mikhail Tal, the so-called “Magician of Riga”.

• In 1961 he made a mark by winning the USSR Championship.

Match of the Century

• The Cold War was transposed to a chessboard as Bobby Fischer of the United States took on defending world champion Spassky of the Soviet Union in a thrilling East-West clash in 1972 dubbed the “match of the century”.

• Some 50 million TV viewers tuned into the two-month-long tussle in Iceland capital Reykjavik.

• With the Cold War at its height and the Soviet Union having dominated the game for years, Spassky faced a must-win situation in his match-up with Fischer.

• During that match in the midst of the Cold War, Spassky lost 12.5-8.5 despite winning the first two games.

• Spassky showed great sportsmanship, applauding Fischer after losing the sixth game.

• After his loss, Spassky went home to a cold reception in the Soviet Union, where he had become a national disappointment.

• Spassky took French nationality in 1978.

• The iconic Cold War duel has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries and films. Most notably it inspired the Walter Tevis novel ‘The Queen’s Gambit’, which was adapted into the acclaimed Netflix series in 2020.

• Spassky did not return to the public sphere for years, until he played an unofficial rematch against Fischer in Yugoslavia in 1992.

• Fischer died in 2008.

• Spassky returned to Russia in 2012.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store