Boris Spassky, the world chess champion whose career was overshadowed by his loss to Bobby Fischer in the “Match of the Century” in 1972, died on Thursday

Mr. Spassky was not happy about all the attention. In a 2023 interview for an exhibition at the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis, his son, Boris Jr., said: “The role that he played in the 1972 match, he always thought of it as a chess player, because all the fuss around it, political, geostrategic, he never mentioned it. I am pretty certain that he felt the pressure.”

It was a measure of the match’s resonance that 20 years later, when the two men staged a rematch, it drew worldwide interest, even though both players were well past their prime.

When they played the first match, in Reykjavik, Iceland, Mr. Fischer, with his brash personality, was something of a folk hero in the West. He was widely portrayed as a lone gunslinger boldly taking on the might of the Soviet chess machine, with Mr. Spassky representing the repressive Soviet empire.

The reality could not have been further from the truth. Mr. Fischer was a spoiled 29-year-old man-child, often irascible and difficult. Mr. Spassky, at 35, was urbane, laid back and good-natured, acceding to Mr. Fischer’s many demands leading up to and during the match.

Mr. Spassky’s warm feelings for Mr. Fischer were genuine, as he showed in 2004, when Mr. Fischer was arrested in Japan for not having a valid passport and was threatened with deportation to the United States to face charges for violating the sanctions against Yugoslavia.

Before Mr. Fischer was ultimately released and sent to Iceland, Mr. Spassky sent a letter to President George W. Bush, asking for clemency.

“Bobby and myself committed the same crime,” he wrote. “Put sanctions against me also. Arrest me. And put me in the same cell with Bobby Fischer. And give us a chess set.”The match received worldwide attention and lasted 30 games, but the result was no different from the one 20 years earlier: Mr. Fischer won, 10 games to 5, with draws not counting.

The matches differed, however, in two respects: The quality of play had suffered a sharp decline, and the tension between the two players was gone. Mr. Spassky and Mr. Fischer, bound together by being at the center of so much scrutiny for so long, were old friends, laughing and talking before and after the games.

In addition to his son, Mr. Spassky’s survivors include three grandsons. All three of his marriages ended in divorce.