Boris Spassky, the Soviet chess grandmaster best known for his historic 1972 match against American Bobby Fischer, has passed away at 88 in Moscow. His legendary encounter with Fischer was a defining moment of Cold War-era chess,

Boris Spassky, a Soviet-era world chess champion who lost his title to Bobby Fischer in a legendary 1972 match that became a proxy for Cold War rivalries, died Thursday in Moscow.

Boris Spassky, a Soviet-era chess grand master who lost his world champion title in 1972 to American Bobby Fischer in one of the most famous duels in the history of the game as well as a metaphor for the competition for Cold War supremacy,