Former chess champ Spassky dies

MOSCOW (AP) — Boris Spassky, a Soviet-era world chess champion who lost his title to American Bobby Fischer in a legendary 1972 match that became a proxy for Cold War rivalries, died Thursday in Moscow. He was 88.

The death of the one-time chess prodigy was announced by the International Chess Federation, the game’s governing body. No cause was given.

Spassky was “one of the greatest players of all time,” the group said on the social platform X. He “left an indelible mark on the game.”

The televised 1972 match with Fischer, at the height of the Cold War, became an international sensation and was known as the “Match of the Century.”