Two days before this post was penned, our tenth world champion, none other than Boris Spassky, sadly passed away, aged 88.
A well-written obituary on him can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/feb/28/boris-spassky-obituary
All my favourite players are Soviet players and I do so wish he had beaten Fischer in 72. Regarding the Soviets; Karpov being my favourite outright, Spassky being second favourite. He was a great character and full of life, there are many funny anecdotes about him. He once offered Kasparov some amusing advice, which I am happy to show here.
An anecdote of Spassky’s appearance at the 1984 Thessanoliki Olympiad:
| In a bus, on the way to the games, Boris Spassky was introduced by a friend to one of the anonymous Olympians. When they were about to part, Spassky’s friend told the Olympian not to wash his right hand in order to keep some of Spassky’s power for his game. As a result, the chessplayer won his next game in good style. He immediately came to Boris’ friend to tell him that his advice was absolutely correct. Now he will not wash his right hand until the end of the Olympiad. This happened in the first rounds of the Olympiad. We believe from that moment Boris Spassky was busy shaking hands with other chessplayers! |
https://olimpbase.org/1984/1984in.html#trivia
Whilst still at school I remember his account of the reasons for his divorce to his first wife Larissa also amusing. In referring to her he said ‘we were like bishops of the opposite colour.’ This can be located in Mike Fox and Richard James’s The Complete Chess Addict, a read highly recommended, and found online easily enough also. Sadly, I never had the chance to meet Spassky or go watch him play… .
Here are two games of his I admired in younger years:
A larger than life character who, by the way, always confessed he was not a communist but was nonetheless treated well by his government and granted the status of emigrée. When I was young I always thought he seemed the happiest of all the Soviet champions.
R.I.P Boris and thank you for all your wonderful games and evervescent love of chess.
Mark. J. McCready
McCreadyandChess 