Soviet grandmaster Anatoly Karpov took over the vacant title of world champion in 1975 and defended it twice against Soviet dissident Viktor Korchnoi. After reigning for a decade, Karpov, born in ...

Mr. Karpov, 71, was the undisputed chess world champion for a decade, beginning in 1975 when the American Bobby Fischer declined to defend his title. He is known for a yearslong rivalry with ...

Fischer, who has died at the age of 64, was a child prodigy, a teenage grandmaster and -- before age 30 -- a world champion who triumphed in a Cold War showdown with Soviet champion Boris Spassky.

But Fischer's reputation as a chess genius soon was eclipsed by his idiosyncrasies. He lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. He dropped out of competitive ...

Boris Spassky, a Soviet-era world chess champion who lost his title to American Bobby Fischer in a legendary 1972 match that became a proxy for Cold War rivalries, died Thursday in Moscow. He was 88.