Chess, Boris Spassky dead at 88: played the “match of the century” with Bobby Fischer

Chess, died at 88 Boris Spassky: played "match of the century" with Bobby Fischer
È Boris Spassky, chess legend of the Soviet Union, world champion from 1969 to 1972, when he was dethroned by American Bobby Fischer in what passed into history as the “match of the century, played in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, has died at 88.
Born on Jan. 30, 1937, in St. Petersburg, which was then called Leningrad, he acquired the title of Grandmaster in 1956 after qualifying at the candidates’ tournament in Amsterdam. But to become world champion he had to wait another ten years.
Indeed, in 1966 he was defeated in the rainbow match held in Moscow by Tigran Petrosian, over whom he però managed to prevail in 1969. Then in 1972, from’July 11 to September 1°, the match with Fischer, mediatically the mostù followed in the entire history of chess, in which the 29-year-old from Brooklyn broke’ the Soviet hegemony that had lasted for a quarter of a century.
Spassky later emigrated abroad and took French citizenship in 1982. He continued to play at a high level for about ten more years and in 1992 played a platonic rematch, not valid for the title, with Fischer in Yugoslavia and was beaten again.
For that match Fischer was put under indictment by the U.S. government, which issued a warrant for his arrest since Yugoslavia was a country under U.S. embargo, then he was actually arrested in 2004 and Spassky wrote a letter to President George W. Bush asking for a pardon for his friend and rival, which proved the great human depth of Boris Spassky.