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.

Soviet chess legend Boris Spassky, who lost the 1972 "Match of the Century" to American Bobby Fischer in a Cold War-era showdown, has died at 88. The match, viewed as a symbolic battle between the U.S.

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