Russia’s chess grandmaster Boris Spassky became a household name in the West during his encounter with America’s Bobby Fischer in the 1972 “Match of the Century” World Championship contest. I can recall my grandfather referring to him as “Passky” and to Fischer as “that Yankee boy” (no disrespect meant).
The news about the Match was publicised on the BBC, which we followed ardently on the radio. As time went by and I learned the game, I realised how attacking and scholarly a player Spassky was. If in the mid-1960s and early 1970s the Soviet Union boasted the finest chess players worldwide, Spassky distinguished himself by beating the best of his colleagues and qualifying for the World Championship.