Boris Vasilievich Spassky, the Soviet chess grandmaster and tenth World Chess Champion who held the title from 1969-72 was born in January 30, 1937.Spassky was born in Leningrad, and learned chess at the age of five when he was on an evacution train from his birth place.His international debut was on 1953 at the age of 16.From that day the growth of the 16 year old was tremendous. He was USSR champion twice, 1961 & 1973 and many other significant titles. The Spassky – Fischer match in 1972 is considered as the “Match of the Century“.The match brought in many controversies and was a big hype. Whole world was curious about the match, a US grand master playing a Russian grand master in the peak of Cold War. Spassky’s 3 year reign ended with that match as he lost to Bobby Fischer. The match was a big mess, many people agree with that statement.There was whole lot of pre-match demands from Fischer like money, playing conditions etc. Most of which were granted by Spassky.With all these hype and tensions Spassky didn’t lose a single match in the first 5 and won 3 out of the first five.But Fischer was in execellent form and won the title.
                                         

    Evenif he lost to Fischer the world honoured him for his sportsmen spirit.He marked a difference in the chess world even in the post Fischer era.Regarding his contributions to modern chess, Spassky opening theory are still famous, risky yet amoung favourites.Eg:-King’s Gambit and a revised Marshall Attack for black and variations in Ruy Lopez.Spassky is considered among all time Legends of Chess with all his contributions to the modern Chess and his brilliant games against Tigran Petrosian (World Championship match 1969),Bent Larsen (USSR vs Rest of the World 1970) and ofcourse Fischer is also in the list.

Related posts:

1. CHESS LEGENDS
2. World Chess Championship 2010:Anand-Topalov
3. Battle Board:How to read a chess game??
4. A Few Chess Terms
5. The Battle Board Game