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.

Boris Spassky, a Soviet-era chess grand master who lost his world champion title in 1972 to American Bobby Fischer in one of the most famous duels in the history of the game as well as a metaphor for the competition for Cold War supremacy,

Fifty years ago, the Cold War was transposed to a chessboard as Bobby Fischer of the United States took on defending world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, who has died aged 88, in a thrilling East-West clash dubbed the "match of the century".