What is Boris Spassky?
[[File:Boris Spasski (1956) - corrected.jpg|thumb|Boris Spassky in 1956 at the World Champonship Candidates tournament in [[Amsterdam]]]] [[File:Boris Spasski 1984 Saloniki.jpg|thumb|Boris Spassky in 1984]] [[File:Spasski 2008 Dresden.jpg|thumb|Spassky in [[Dresden]], 2008]] '''Boris Spassky''' <ref>{{lang-ru|Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский}}</ref> (30 January 1937 &ndash; 27 February 2025) was a [[USSR|Soviet]]–[[France|French]] [[chess]] [[Grandmaster (chess)|grandmaster]]. He was the tenth [[List of World Chess Champions|World Chess Champion]], holding the title from late 1969 to 1972.<ref>Hooper D. & Whyld K. 1992. ''The Oxford companion to chess''. Oxford University Press, Oxford.</ref><sup>p381</sup> Spassky won the [[USSR]] Chess Championship twice outright (1961, 1973), and twice more lost in playoffs (1956, 1963). He was a [[World Chess Championship]] candidate on seven occasions (1956, 1965, 1968, 1974, 1977, 1980, and 1985). He was born in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]]. Boris won the Candidates match series in 1965 and 1968. He played for the world championship three times. Against [[Tigran Petrosian]] in 1966 he lost; against Petrosian again in 1969 (winning), and against [[Bobby Fischer]] in 1972 (losing). The match with Fischer in [[Reykjavik]] was the most publicised chess match of any time. His loss was subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny by the Soviet central committee for chess, and he was criticised for lack of adequate preparation. The second half of his life until recently was lived in [[France]]. He has both Russian and French [[nationality]]. == Later life == On 1 October 2006, Spassky suffered a minor [[stroke]] during a chess lecture in [[San Francisco]]. On 23 September 2010, [[ChessBase]] reported that Spassky had suffered a more serious stroke that had left him paralyzed on his left side.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6692 |title=Chess News – Boris Spassky in grave condition |publisher=ChessBase.com |access-date=2011-11-12}}</ref> After that h