Spassky, Boris Vasilyevich

Spassky, Boris Vasilyevich

▪ Soviet chess player
born January 30, 1937, Leningrad [now St. Petersburg], Russia, U.S.S.R.

      Soviet chess master and world champion from 1969 to 1972.

      When Spassky was evacuated from Leningrad during World War II to a children's home in Kirov province, he learned to play chess. In 1953, while still in his teens, he gained the rank of international master. In 1955 he won the world junior championship, and in that same year he won the title of international grandmaster. In the following years, however, while occupied with his journalism studies at Leningrad University, Spassky was overshadowed by the rise of the young chess genius Mikhail Tal (Tal, Mikhail Nekhemyevich) from Riga, Latvia. In 1966, still having little international reputation, Spassky first challenged Tigran Petrosyan (Petrosyan, Tigran Vartanovich) for the world title, but he was not successful at taking the title until three years later. Spassky's style was characterized by an adaptability rarely matched in the history of chess. His victory over Petrosyan was narrow (121/2–101/2), however, and his subsequent tournament results were unremarkable. In 1972 he lost the world title to Bobby Fischer (Fischer, Bobby) of the United States.

Additional Reading
Bernard Cafferty, Spassky's 100 Best Games, 3rd ed. (1979), is the best-games collection covering Spassky's career.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Spassky, Boris (Vasilyevich) — born Jan. 30, 1937, Leningrad, Russia, U.S.S.R. Russian chess master. Spassky attained the rank of international grand master in chess in 1955. After a period of intermittent involvement with the game, he beat Tigran Petrosyan for the world title …   Universalium

  • Vasilyevich — (as used in expressions) Chicherin Georgy Vasilyevich Frunze Mikhail Vasilyevich Gogol Nikolay Vasilyevich Golitsyn Vasily Vasilyevich Prince Ivan Vasilyevich Kolchak Aleksandr Vasilyevich Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilyevich Lunacharsky Anatoly… …   Universalium

  • Boris — /bawr is, bohr , bor /; Russ. /bu rddyees /, n. a male given name. * * * (as used in expressions) Becker Boris Franz Boris I Chain Sir Ernst Boris Godunov Boris Fyodorovich Karloff Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Spassky Boris Vasilyevich… …   Universalium

  • Spassky — /spas kee/; Russ. /spah skee/, n. Boris (Vasilyevich) /bawr is veuh seel yeuh vich, bohr , bor /; Russ. /bu rddyees vu syee lyi vyich/, born 1937, Russian chess player. * * * …   Universalium

  • Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov — (January 8 1947 – November 17 2005) was a Russian Grandmaster of chess and a concert pianist. Early life He was born in 1947 in Leningrad, USSR, and learned chess at age five. He studied music intensively as a youth, specializing in piano, and… …   Wikipedia

  • Russia — /rush euh/, n. 1. Also called Russian Empire. Russian, Rossiya. a former empire in E Europe and N and W Asia: overthrown by the Russian Revolution 1917. Cap.: St. Petersburg (1703 1917). 2. See Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 3. See Russian… …   Universalium

  • chess — chess1 /ches/, n. a game played by two persons, each with 16 pieces, on a chessboard. [1150 1200; ME < OF esches, pl. of eschec CHECK1] chess2 /ches/, n., pl. chess, chesses. one of the planks forming the roadway of a floating bridge. [1425 75;… …   Universalium

  • Fischer, Bobby — orig. Robert James Fischer born March 9, 1943, Chicago, Ill., U.S. U.S. chess master. He became a grandmaster at age 15, then a record. In 1972 Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to become the only American to win the world chess championship. An… …   Universalium

  • Petrosyan, Tigran Vartanovich — ▪ Soviet chess player Petrosyan also spelled  Petrosian   born June 17, 1929, Tbilisi, Georgia, U.S.S.R. died August 13, 1984, Moscow, Russia       Soviet Armenian chess master who won the world championship from Mikhail Botvinnik (Botvinnik,… …   Universalium

  • Keres, Paul — ▪ Estonian chess player born January 7, 1916, Narva, Estonia, Russian Empire died June 5, 1975, Helsinki, Finland       Estonian chess grandmaster, three times chess champion of the U.S.S.R., three times European champion, and a member of the… …   Universalium

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