Soviet chess champion Boris Spassky dies at 88

Soviet chess world champion Boris Spassky has died at age 88. It was announced by the Russian Chess Federation that regretted the event as a “great loss for Russia”.

Spassky held the title of world champion from 1969 to 1972, when he lost his crown to the US grandmaster Bobby Fischer.  

The duel between the two chessboard giants became the symbol of the Cold War rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union.