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.

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 on Thursday in Moscow. He was 88.

The world champion, dethroned by the American in the middle of the Cold War, died on February 27 in Moscow at the age of 88 after a life worthy of the movies