Opinion The Third Edit: Boris Spassky – chess champion, Cold War victim

Like all ardent sports rivals consumed by the intricacies of their craft, Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer ended up exceedingly fond of each other after their greatest face off — the 1972 World Chess Championship. Spassky, who passed away on Thursday aged 88 applauded Fischer’s win in Game 6 of the championship. In a match framed by Cold War politics, the Russian saw his loss as a relief from “colossal responsibility”. His American rival too didn’t view Spassky as a villain he had slayed. Even as the match threw up scenes of manic suspicion and pressure, both seemed to know they were pawns deployed for political posturing. Three decades later after the two had travelled to play in Yugoslavia, while war raged in Bosnia Herzegovina, Spassky wrote to George W Bush, “Bobby and myself committed the same crime. Arrest me. Put me in the same cell with Bobby Fischer. And give us a chess set.”

Spassky’s match with Fischer overshadowed some outstanding play in the Soviet Nationals as he defeated Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov. He once told Levon Aronian, “Don’t try to become a world champion, the majority of us became champions by accident”. But the gentlemanly Spassky couldn’t escape the cultural typecasting of his times. Hollywood portrayed the Russian champion as the symbol of the hegemonic East, and cast Fischer in kinder hues. One of Spassky’s 1960 games with David Bronstein inspired a Bond movie opening scene in From Russia With Love.

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Spassky blended psychology and unpredictability, never obsessed on openings and focused on mastering the mid-game instead. He was a Marie Kondo on the chessboard, uncluttering complexities. As Fischer noted, Spassky could “blunder away a piece and you were never sure whether it was a blunder or a fantastically deep sacrifice”. The 1972 match was full of blunders, chess-wise — Spassky overlooking one-move combinations and Fischer hanging on. Spassky was the Borg to Fischer’s McEnroe. Just that Mad Mac won this one.