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.

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

Boris Spassky, a Russian grandmaster who went against American Bobby Fischer in a 1972 chess game known as the “Match of the Century,” has died. He was 88. The Chess Federation of Russia announced that Spassky passed away in Moscow on Thursday but did not provide a cause of death.