There are some things in history that you always remember, and this one I remember well. The sad thing, is that you knew right away that Boris Spassky's life was almost over, by a sick institution that had this not very funny idea that Chess was their show of intelligence and ... political influence, I guess.

As time went by, you thought less and less of this, and of course, Bobby Fischer was not exactly a person with integrity, I suppose that we could say, to stand up for something, and Boris, sadly enough, became a figure that was vitally important to all the Communist folks and regime ... and that he lost, specially to an American, was ... not only pathetic, it was ridiculous. And a media failure that showed some of the signs that not all was well in Russia and the countries they controlled in Eastern Europe.

You kinda felt this one some, and we might have thought that the Wall coming down was more important, but in the end, the Boris thing was already a sign that things were coming apart in Europe when it came to the Communist thing. There were cracks in the walls, let's say!

A nice man, and it would have been nice to hear more of him, from him, but it never happened and he stayed quiet ... though he played some chess, representing France when he was able to get out of Russia, he was never the same ... and the folks reviewing and discussing the games, gave him a hard time for his "mistakes".

RIP ... a good guy that did not stand up for the insanity in his home country.