Boris Spassky is best remembered for his duel with American Bobby Fischer in a legendary 1972 match that became a proxy for Cold War rivalries.

Russian chess grandmaster Boris Spassky has died at the age of 88, International chess federation (FIDE) general director Emil Sutovsky told Reuters on Thursday.

When Mr. Spassky, a Russian, played Bobby Fischer, an American, in Iceland at the height of the Cold War, the media attention reduced them to pawns in a wider drama.