Boris Spassky

Boris Spassky (born January 30, 1937, Leningrad [now St. Petersburg], Russia, U.S.S.R.) is a Russian chess master who was world champion from 1969 to 1972.

(Read Garry Kasparov’s Britannica essay on chess & Deep Blue.)

When Spassky was evacuated from Leningrad (St. Petersburg) during World War II to a children’s home in Kirov province, he learned to play chess. In 1953, while still in his teens, he gained the rank of international master. In 1955 he won the world junior championship, and in that same year he won the title of international grandmaster. In the following years, however, while occupied with his journalism studies at Leningrad University, Spassky was overshadowed by the rise of the young chess genius Mikhail Tal from Riga, Latvia.

In 1966, still having little international reputation, Spassky first challenged Tigran Petrosyan for the world title, but he was not successful at taking the title until three years later. Spassky’s style was characterized by an adaptability rarely matched in the history of chess. His victory over Petrosyan was narrow (121/2–101/2), however, and his subsequent tournament results were unremarkable.

In 1972 Spassky lost the world title to Bobby Fischer of the United States. Twenty years later the two men faced each other in a controversial rematch that took place in Yugoslavia, a country that was then subject to United Nations sanctions on trade. Fischer, who had not played publicly since 1975, again defeated Spassky, whose ranking had slipped to 99th in the world, in the privately organized tournament, and each collected a share of the $5 million purse.