According to Boris Spassky himself, he had spent the past two years or so under what was effectively "house arrest" under his wife, ever since suffering a stroke in September of 2010. With the help of some friends, he escaped their home in France and made it to back to Russia, where he hopes to live out his days. Spassky even thinks someone (he doesn't say who) may have been trying to kill him, at least during the period when he was in the hospital recovering from the stroke.
Quite the story. Whether or not it's true, I hope he finds safety, good health and happiness back in Moscow.
[HT: Brian Karen]
[N.B. There's another big non-chess story featuring a legendary chess player, and I suspect that many if not most or even all of you know already about it. The story seems to me too crude for a blog that I wish to keep kid-friendly; my apologies to those of you who wished to see it on here. Suffice to say that the prominent parties directly involved in the story - but not the chess figure - both behaved disgustingly.]