The author of the book of the same name says he based her character loosely on Bobby Fischer. Vasily Borgiv is clearly inspired by Boris Spassky, a contemporary

The author of the book of the same name says he based her character loosely on Bobby Fischer. Vasily Borgiv is clearly inspired by Boris Spassky, a contemporary of Fischer’s who lost to him in the 1972 World Cup. Spassky had a peak rating of 2690 and Fischer’s was 2785, which puts him about 19th in the world today: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_top_chess_players_throughout_history https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_top_chess_play...