Mr. Spassky went home to a cold reception ... And give us a chess set.” Boris Vasilyevich Spassky was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) on Jan. 30, 1937. During World War II, he lived ...

MOSCOW — 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.