When Mr. Spassky, a Russian, played Bobby Fischer, an American, in Iceland at the height of the Cold War, the media attention reduced them to pawns in a wider drama.

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, has died in Moscow.

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.