In Search of Bobby Fischer

By James Brooke The New York Times
Friday, March 25, 2005
TOKYO After eight months in a Japanese detention cell, Bobby Fischer, the American chess legend, flew out of Tokyo on Thursday, cursing the leaders of the United States and Japan and bound for self-exile in Iceland.

"This was not an arrest, it was a kidnapping cooked up by Bush and Koizumi," Fischer, 62, told reporters, his eyes shielded by the visor of baseball cap and his chin sporting a long gray beard grown during this detention on an American arrest warrant.

Referring to President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan, he said: "They are war criminals. They should both be hung."

Striding toward the boarding gate for a flight to Copenhagen, he said: "I'm not free until I get out of Japan."

Japan's Justice Ministry approved his release and departure, after Iceland's Parliament voted Monday to award citizenship to Fischer, a tribute to the epic cold war match in 1972 in Reykjavik. That contest ended with the American beating the Soviet player, Boris Spassky.

On Wednesday, Icelandic diplomats presented documents to Japanese Foreign and Justice ministries confirming that Fischer, who was born in Chicago and brought up in Brooklyn, is now a citizen of Iceland. Under Japanese law, he could be deported to his country of origin or to another country where he holds citizenship.

Last July, the eccentric chess genius was jailed by Japan as he tried to fly out of Tokyo with an American passport that had been revoked. Fischer is wanted in the United States for violating sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia by playing an exhibition re-match against Spassky in 1992. Fischer won about $3 million for playing in the Belgrade match.

"There are outstanding charges against Mr. Fischer that we believe should be addressed in the United States, and that is what, frankly, we are looking to happen," the deputy spokesman at the State Department, Adam Ereli said Wednesday.

It is unclear how Fischer will avoid extradition by living in Iceland, a windswept North Atlantic nation with a population of only 300,000. Iceland, like Japan, maintains close military ties with the United States and has an extradition treaty with the United States.

But in Iceland, Fischer enjoys a hero status from his 1972 match, a bout that enthralled a nation of chess players, and, for much of the rest of the world, put the Kentucky-sized country on the map.

[Mr. Blonde]

I don't know about anybody else, but it sounds to me like there is a lot more behind this than revoked passports and violated chess sanctions...

[Beebs]

What a bunch of bullshit, I wonder what the statue of limitations for a fucking chess game is.

[ March 24, 2005, 11:02 AM: Message edited by: Beebs ]

[Ugly Bastard]

Originally posted by Mr. Blonde:
I don't know about anybody else, but it sounds to me like there is a lot more behind this than revoked passports and violated chess sanctions...

Yes.

-Ugly Bastard

[Mr. Blonde]

Originally posted by Beebs:
What a bunch of bullshit, I wonder what the statue of limitations for a fucking chess game is.

I would imagine it looks something like this:


[ March 24, 2005, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: Mr. Blonde ]

Wow Beebs. I know you know better, it was probably a typo.

[ March 24, 2005, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: DJ FC ]

[Beebs]

Fuck me...I won't edit it

[f3lix]

It had to do with international relations and the chess game violated that, it wasn't the opposite way around.

[Orgazmo]

I think we should pit Mr. Fischer against the most developed chess simulation program known to man. If he wins, he's a free man. If he loses...

<font color="red">HE DIES!</font>

[Beebs]

Originally posted by f3lix:
It had to do with international relations and the chess game violated that, it wasn't the opposite way around.

I get that, but the cold war is over...Yugoslavia doesn't even exist anymore.

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

haha props mr. blonde. I don't think there is a "statue" of limitations for warcrimes, but thats pretty FN gay.