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Bobby Fischer: Chessman Of Mystery

Yithian

Yithian

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BOBBY FISCHER

The former world chess champion, Bobby Fischer, is in detention in Japan, accused of trying to leave the country without a valid passport. He faces deportation to the US, from which he has been in exile for more than a decade. He is accused of violating economic sanctions by playing an exhibition match in Yugoslavia in 1992.

When Bobby Fischer returned to the United States in 1972, after his victory in the World Chess Championship in Iceland, he was given the keys to his native New York City.

This was the hero who had beaten the commies at their own game. How different things look today. If sent back to his homeland now, Fischer could be facing 10 years in a prison cell.

Chess was one of the means by which the Soviets believed they could assert the superiority of their system over the capitalist West.

With the Cold War at its height, Fischer, with his fearless, attacking genius, overcame the incumbent champion, Boris Spassky. Good had, apparently, triumphed over evil.

Or so it seemed.

In fact, only a last minute phone call from the then national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, to "get his butt over to Iceland", prevented Fischer from pulling out.

Fischer at the table with Spassky in 1992
Fischer during his 1992 re-match against Spassky

In a display of the paranoia that has never left him, he demanded different lighting, a new chair, no audience, no cameras, more time, less time, and all manner of other outrageous conditions.

Today he is known as much for his right-wing views as for his mastery of chess. His diatribes, mainly on live radio, include his glee at the attack on the Twin Towers, and his assertion that the US government is a "brutal, evil dictatorship".

He also alleges that he has been swindled out of a personal fortune, and has issued a vicious tirade against Jewish people.

This is ironic since Bobby Fischer was born in a Jewish neighbourhood in Brooklyn to a Jewish mother and, it transpired later, to a Jewish father.

His sister first taught him chess in his early teens. It soon became an obsession. He had boards placed beside every bed in his apartment and would sleep in each in rotation as he played against himself in games sometimes lasting for days.

Stripped of title

Fischer became increasingly demanding of tournament organisers, while, at the same time, absorbing himself in anti-Semitic and white-supremacist literature.

He was vehemently anti-Communist, another irony since the FBI, it was revealed years later, had once suspected him and his mother of being Russian spies.

Fischer's hold on the world chess crown ended when the chess authorities, in 1975, refused to meet his 16 pages of demands prior to his defence against Anatoly Karpov.

Fischer gave up playing tournaments and took up with an apocalyptic cult called the Worldwide Church of God. After a bitter falling out with them, his paranoia increased.

Close-up of Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer, a troubled soul
He reportedly had his dental fillings removed, fearing that the Russians could use them as radio wave receptors to control his thinking.

He was coaxed out of retirement for the 1992 re-match with Spassky in Yugoslavia out of sheer financial necessity. This time, he insisted the toilet in his bathroom should be higher than anyone else's and even argued over the length of the knight's nose.

He won the chess contest with its m prize, though by now, Spassky was rated only 99th in the world.

Now an outlaw, deemed to have been "trading with the enemy," Bobby Fischer remained in Yugoslavia for a while before moving to Hungary where he became involved with a chess player, Zita Rajcsanyi.

When they broke up, she wrote a book about their relationship in which she accused him of regarding women as inferior. She blamed his attitude on his mother, who often left him alone.

He began leading a peripatetic life as he attempted to avoid extradition to his homeland, ending up in Japan. During his travels, he is said to have fathered a child with a Filipino woman living in Manila.

In his hey-day, Bobby Fischer's brilliance raised the world profile of chess. But to those who once championed the one-time King of the Castle, Bobby Fischer is now nothing more than a dirty rascal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3939473.stm
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Follow the links here for details on his strange life.
 
Latest Gambit?

Fischer plans to marry in Japan

Former chess champion Bobby Fischer, who is in custody in Japan and wanted by his native US, has reportedly decided to marry a Japanese woman.

His lawyer said he was planning to wed the head of Japan's Chess Association.

The move is being seen as his latest attempt to avoid deportation to the US, where he is wanted for violating sanctions against Yugoslavia in 1992.

Mr Fischer has already said he wants to renounce his US citizenship, and has applied for political asylum in Japan.

The marriage plans were announced late on Monday by Mr Fischer's lawyer, Masako Suzuki, and later confirmed in a statement from the bride-to-be, Miyoko Watai.

Ms Watai, a long-term friend of Mr Fischer, said she had first met him in 1973 and the couple had been living together for the past four years.

"Our feelings are genuine and are based on our years of close companionship," she said in her statement, adding that the two had kept the relationship "entirely private, even from our closest friends".

"I am praying every day for Bobby's release so that we can be reunited and be allowed to continue our life together here in Japan," she said.

'No effect'

It is unclear whether marrying a Japanese national or renouncing his US citizenship would allow Mr Fischer to escape deportation.

The US state department declined to comment on the case.

But a department official told AFP news agency that generally, renouncing American citizenship had no effect on criminal prosecution in the US.

The controversial player has been on the run from the US authorities for more than a decade, after being accused of breaking international sanctions by visiting Yugoslavia to take part in a chess match in 1992.

He was detained at Narita airport with an expired passport, while on his way to the Philippines.

He had managed to live undetected in Japan for three years, sometimes travelling abroad.

A brilliant but mercurial player, Bobby Fischer became a grandmaster at 15 and shot to fame in 1972 when he beat Boris Spassky of the then Soviet Union.

The contest, billed as the "Match of the Century", was regarded as a propaganda victory as the game had been dominated by the Soviets since World War II.

He held the title of world chess champion until 1975, and resurfaced in Yugoslavia for the dramatic 1992 rematch against Mr Spassky.

He won the game, but disappeared when the US authorities announced they wanted to prosecute him over the m he earned for playing, which the US said violated US and United Nations bans on doing business in the country.

Mr Fischer has since reappeared sporadically, attacking "world Jewry" and calling the 11 September 2001 attacks "wonderful news".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3571672.stm
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he's being deported now, apparently

Japan has decided to deport former world chess champion Bobby Fischer.
"A deportation order was issued today," said an immigration official, as the courts rejected Mr Fischer's latest attempt to prevent his departure.

Mr Fischer is wanted in the US for violating international sanctions against Yugoslavia in 1992.

The controversial player was detained in Japan last month while trying to travel to the Philippines on a revoked US passport.


Mr Fischer has tried to fight his deportation by applying for political asylum in Japan and renouncing his US citizenship - both of which have now been rejected by the Japanese courts.

He also recently confirmed plans to marry a Japanese woman, Miyoko Watai, the head of the Japan Chess Association - but analysts say this is unlikely to help him stay in the country.
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He played a game of chess (yes, you heard that right) in Yugoslavia when that nation was not in favour with the USA.
 
Bobby Fischer vigorously defends his manhood


Chess genius Bobby Fischer has lashed out against what he sees as doubts about his virility, boasted of being hugely endowed and claimed his incarceration near the site of Japan's worst nuclear accident is aimed at making him impotent.

An apparently tongue-in-cheek Fischer alluded to an old wive's tale that says foot span is often seen as an indication of the length of a penis and pointed out that he wears size 14 shoes.

Fischer, speaking from the East Japan Immigration Bureau Detention Center in Ushiku, Tochigi Prefecture, was slamming an article in the Aug. 30 edition of Time magazine in which its Tokyo Bureau Chief Jim Fredrick said the chess champion's anti-Semitism and status as a fugitive from the U.S. justice system "might not sound like Mr. Right" to the average lonely heart.

"I wear size 14 wide shoe. Just keep that in mind when you say I'm not a dreamboat, or not Mr. Right," Fischer said in an Oct. 11 interview he gave a Philippine radio station and posted on the Internet over the weekend.

Fischer went on to tell a story of a trip he and fiance, Japanese women's chess champion Miyoko Watai, took to a hot spring resort in Japan some years ago.

Fischer said that he and Watai normally only go to first class hotels and bathe there in privacy, but occasionally use public facilities for variety.

On one such occasion, Watai had finished soaking in the therapeutic waters and was waiting in the lobby for him to come out of the men's section of the spring they had visited.

While there, Watai overhead a conversation "between two Japanese geezers," as Fischer referred to them, who had been marveling over the enormity of the male organ they spotted on a fellow bather.

When Fischer walked out of the hot spring's change room, the two men apparently pointed at the chess genius, said simultaneously, "Hey, that's him," to indicate who they had been talking about, and caused much embarrassment for his lover, Watai, the grandmaster said.

"This is an absolutely true story," Fischer said. "And it ties in with this nuclear radiation here. This can affect your potency. They want to make me impotent."

Fischer believes that Ushiku's proximity to Tokai, scene of Japan's worst-ever nuclear accident following a critical reaction at a plant in 1999, makes him susceptible to the effects of leaked radiation. Ushiku is about 50 kilometers from Tokai, where the government has deemed radiation levels are fit for human habitation. Fischer said repeated requests for a transfer and provisional release, the Japanese equivalent of bail, have been rejected.

Fischer is in the Ushiku detention center while he fights a deportation order issued Aug. 24. The Tokyo District Court granted an injunction against the execution of the order on Sept. 8. His American lawyer is due to speak about the case at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo on Monday afternoon.

Fischer is wanted in the U.S. for playing chess in Yugoslavia in 1992 when that country was being subjected to international sanctions.

A grand jury in the U.S. indicted him later the same year. He faces up to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of 250,000 dollars if convicted.

Fischer, who won the World Chess Championship in 1972 by defeating then Soviet Boris Spassky in a match that captivated much of the world and made him a hero in the United States, also spoke of his dreams for the future.

"I hope to get out of here alive and in good physical condition, before the radiation poisoning takes its hold on me. And I want to play Fischer Random (chess). And I want to complete my high tech 'dream clock' and play with it," Fischer said. "I still have a lot of ambitions on and off the chessboard."

------------
(By Ryann Connell, Mainichi Daily News, Oct. 18, 2004)
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http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20041018p2a00m0dm001000c.html
 
The David Beckham of Chess *splutter*

Just as it looked as if he had run out of options:

Fischer 'put Iceland on the map'
By Laura Smith-Spark
BBC News

Extending the hand of friendship to a man viewed as a paranoid recluse with extreme views may seem a puzzling move.

It becomes even more inexplicable when to do so could earn you the disapproval of the US, a powerful enemy.

Yet Iceland has offered a residency visa to ex-chess champion Bobby Fischer in recognition of a 30-year-old match that put the country "on the map".

His historic win over Russian Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972 shone the international spotlight on Iceland as never before.

Now Iceland is keen to repay the favour by offering sanctuary to Mr Fischer, an American citizen.

He is being detained in Japan and is wanted in the US for violating international sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing there in 1992.

But Gunnar Snorr Gunnarsson, permanent secretary in Iceland's foreign affairs ministry, told the BBC News website that his country had not been able to ignore the grandmaster's direct appeal for help.

He said both chess and Mr Fischer retained a special place in Icelandic culture.

"There is a certain feeling of solidarity, not with his views but with an exceptional champion who is in difficulties," Mr Gunnarsson said.

"In his time he also contributed to a rather special event here, over 30 years ago but that people remember very well."

Extradition danger

He said public reaction in Iceland to the visa offer had been "overwhelmingly positive".

"It was not possible to grant him political asylum but we could offer him a residency permit on humanitarian grounds," he said.

"Now it's up to the Japanese authorities to decide how they will react."

Even if Mr Fischer is allowed to travel to Iceland, the US could start extradition proceedings against him there, Mr Gunnarsson said.

The 62-year-old recluse has alienated many in his homeland by broadcasting anti-Semitic diatribes and expressing support for the 11 September 2001 attacks.

Mr Gunnarsson said: "We have been anxious to convey to our American friends that this is a purely humanitarian gesture and we certainly do not endorse some of his statements.

"Simply we would like this to be a token of respect towards an exceptional chess player."

Lilja Gretasdottir, president of Iceland's chess federation, said the decision to offer Mr Fischer a visa was "wonderful news".

"We've been fighting for this since he was jailed in Japan," she said.

"It was a brave decision on behalf of the Icelandic government and an admirable one.

"A lot of Icelanders - even if they have no interest in chess - feel attached to the memory of Bobby Fischer."

'Our Beckham'

She said she doubted Mr Fischer would sit down at the chessboard with Icelanders if he came but he would be welcome nonetheless.

"As long as we know he is safe and a free man, that is enough for us. It's the same as for any other human being," she said.

"His only crime was to play chess but playing chess is not a crime."

Pall Stefansson, of the Iceland Review news magazine and website, said people were prepared to make allowances for Mr Fischer's controversial behaviour because "he put Iceland on the international map".

He said Icelanders, who form part of the coalition forces in Iraq, were unconcerned about the consequences of supporting Mr Fischer against US wishes.

"I think it's Icelandic stubbornness, that maybe we do what we like," he said.

"One chess player cannot upset the good relations we have with the US and everyone here thinks it's kind of strange the Americans do this... because he's played chess in Serbia.

"For us he has the status of a football player, he is like our David Beckham."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4102367.stm
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Beyond a visa, citizenship! :? Though somehow I see this not being the last of this saga, once he figures out about "the Jewish Conspiracy that runs Iceland" :roll: or somesuch. The thing about people whose entire life has revolved around paranoia and persecution is that the geographic location ultimately makes little difference in their outlook.

Iceland offer for fugitive Fischer

Monday, March 21, 2005 Posted: 1:21 PM EST (1821 GMT)


REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) -- Iceland's parliament has voted to grant citizenship to fugitive U.S. chess star Bobby Fischer.

The legislation, passed Monday with 40 lawmakers voting "aye" and two abstaining following a brief debate, became law immediately.

"I am very pleased with this, and I think that the dignity of the parliament has increased," Fischer's supporter Saemundur Palsson said, adding that Fischer would be informed Tuesday morning Japanese time.

"I hope that he will stop cursing the Americans now. It has gotten him into so much trouble," Palsson told reporters.

Einar S. Einarsson, another of Fischer's key supporters, said he had spoken to the mercurial chess genius earlier in the day.

Fischer hoped the process would be quick, and "I don't think it could have been much quicker," Einarsson said. The bill went through the required three readings in 12 minutes.

Fischer, 62, has been detained in Japan awaiting deportation to the United States, where he is wanted for violating economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a highly publicized chess match there in 1992.

There is widespread support for Fischer in Iceland, where he played the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky in a world championship match in 1972.

Iceland's parliament voted last month against granting Fischer citizenship, offering him a special foreigners' passport and residence permit instead. But Japanese officials declined to release him.

Since being taken into custody in July for allegedly trying to leave Japan on a revoked U.S. passport, Fischer has repeatedly denounced the U.S. deportation order as politically motivated, demanded refugee status, renounced his U.S. citizenship and said he wants to become a German national instead.

He has also applied to marry a Japanese woman who heads Iceland's chess association and is his longtime companion.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/03 ... index.html
 
There's still a few possible situations to be avoided here yet, such as a tax evasion thing or something. www.chessbase.com has regular updates on Mr Fischer's situation.
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 374811.stm

Excellent, looks like he gets to avoid extradition to the US.

The US said it was disappointed at the move. "Mr Fischer is a fugitive from justice," said a US state department spokesman.
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.

That will be a legal and not moral definition of justice then. He spoke his mind and played an 'illegal' game of chess.

:roll:

This alone should show he's a little volatile though:

His supporters say he has been under heavy stress in jail. He was held for four days in solitary confinement earlier this month after scuffling with guards in an argument over a boiled egg.
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. :D
 
Obviously he has since died, but this is a wonderful little tale and I'd love for it to be true.

BOBBY FISCHER, who became world chess champion in 1972 by triumphing in the most famous match ever played, and who then retired to a hermit-like existence of total obscurity, has been discovered playing the game anonymously on the internet against fellow Grandmasters.​
​
The disclosure that Fischer has emerged from a virtual 30-year self-imposed exile is made today in The Sunday Telegraph Review by Nigel Short, the British Grandmaster who in 1993 was the official challenger to Garry Kasparov.​
​
Short says that he has played nearly 50 speed chess games against Fischer during the past year.​
​
"I am 99 per cent sure that I have been playing against the chess legend. It's tremendously exciting," said Short. He has overwhelming evidence that the man who beat him comfortably is the same man who defeated Boris Spassky, the Russian world champion, in an epic battle of the "superpowers" in Reykjavik in 1972.​

Details of why Short believed this:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1339982/Bobby-Fischer-takes-on-all-comers-in-cyberspace.html

Not least because:​
​
In October last year, in the first of their four confrontations, Short lost 8-0. Short is one of the world's best speed chess players, and in 1995 drew a series of speed chess games 6-6 against Kasparov, the then world champion. ​
 
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