Kramnik shares stories about the late Boris Spassky

The passing of the 10th World Champion, Boris Spassky, on February 27th at the age of 88, was met with great sadness in the chess world. Spassky was known as one of the most gentlemanly and well-liked players in the game. In wider circles, he is best known as the opponent to Bobby Fischer in the 1972 match.

Vladimir Kramnik added to the reminisces today, sharing on Twitter what he describes as “a few funny and mostly unknown stories” about Spassky. One of them is the following:

“He immigrated to France in 1976 after the marriage with a french women, but never really learned french language. At some point the visitors of his apartment in Paris noticed a motivator hanged on the wall of his cabinet, handwritten by him in russian “learn French, idiot!“

Needless to say, his french never improved much. Spassky himself always acknowledged that he was somewhat lazy in general...

This story had a continuation. Sometime after he lost to Viktor Korchnoi in some veteran event I believe, in French defence. Viktor Livovich was always ready for jokes of that sort, and signing Spassky’s scoresheet, he wrote there “learn French, idiot!” “

Spassky will leave a lasting mark as one of the most iconic players in chess history.

Photo: J. Evers / ANEFO, via nationaalarchief.nl