Chess: Fischer Detained in Japan, faces extradition to US

[RedSoxFan]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=18&u=/ap/20040716/ap_on_re_as/japan_bobby_fischer_8

Japan Detains Ex-Chess Champ Bobby Fischer

By NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO - Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, wanted since 1992 for playing a tournament in Yugoslavia despite U.N. sanctions, has been detained in Japan, clearing the way for his extradition to the United States.

Fischer was stopped at Tokyo's Narita International Airport on Tuesday as he tried to go to the Philippines, an airport official said on condition of anonymity.

Miyoko Watai, a Japan Chess Association official who described herself as a longtime friend of Fischer's, said the eccentric chess prodigy discovered when he was detained that the United States had revoked his passport.

Watai, who said she had spoken with Fischer since his
detention, added that he was told he would be extradited but that he would appeal.

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said it knew Fischer had been detained but refused further comment, citing privacy concerns.

Fischer became a Cold War hero in 1972 when he defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union to become the first American world chess champion. But the chess prodigy, long know for his eccentric ways, stunned the chess world by refusing to play again, and had slipped mysteriously in and out of public view in the years since.

He forfeited the title in 1975, and resurfaced for a dramatic rematch against Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992, beating him 10-5 to win $3.35 million.

U.S. authorities accused him of violating U.N. sanctions imposed against Yugoslavia for provoking warfare in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Fischer, indicted by a grand jury in 1992, managed to elude authorities and left a tantalizing trail that included radio broadcasts from the Philippines and sightings in Japan.

The Athens-based World Chess Federation had no comment about Fischer's arrest.

"The international federation has had no connection with Mr. Fischer since 1975, so officially we are not in a position to say something about this," said Giorgos Mastrokoukos, the federation's public relations director.

In radio interviews, Fischer praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be "wiped out," and described Jews as "thieving, lying *******s." His mother was Jewish.

Fischer, now 61 years old, became grandmaster at age 15.

He announced that he had abandoned chess in 1996 and launched a new version, "Fischerandom," a computerized shuffler that randomly distributes chess pieces on the back row of the chess board at the start of each game.

Fischer claimed it would bring the fun back into the game and rid it of cheats.

[Aaron Brachowitz]

Jeez, isn't there a statute of limitations on something like that? How silly.

[Mel-o-rama]

Is this serious? What does the US want to do - throw him in jail for playing chess? Next thing you know we'll be knocking off mathematicians as they are writing equations in the sand!

[MountainHawk]

Usually, the penalty for violating these sanctions is a major (read 6 or 7 digits) fine. I'm not sure he actually faces jail time.

[Will Durant]

Usually, the penalty for violating these sanctions is a major (read 6 or 7 digits) fine. I'm not sure he actually faces jail time.
Can that still be enforced 12 years later?

[douglan]

Usually, the penalty for violating these sanctions is a major (read 6 or 7 digits) fine. I'm not sure he actually faces jail time.
Can that still be enforced 12 years later?

I'm no legal expert, but if I were going to hazard a guess, I would say yes, these charges can be enforced even though it is 12 years after the fact (i.e., the indictments have never been withdrawn by the US).

For the sake of comparison, there are several fugitives on the Most Wanted List who are living overseas and who were involved in the Savings & Loan crisis of the mid- 1980s. The charges against these individuals are also still pending.

[lawfi5h]

I saw this story a few days ago about a man named Jenkins who deserted the army 40 years ago and the US gov't is still after him:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040716/ap_on_re_as/japan_jenkins_6

[Bama Gambler]

I'm no legal expert :rofl:

[Macroman]

I doubt the US DOJ has put much effort into going after Fischer. He was on a list and the Japanese take such things very seriously. The seriousness of this crime has also doubtless been upgraded since 9/11 so even though Fischer is unlikely to be a terrorist (though one never knows considering his history) he was caught up in the web.

[Jonas Grumby]

Fischer also never paid taxes on his foreign winnings. They'll get him with the Al Capone rule!

[RedSoxFan]

I doubt the US DOJ has put much effort into going after Fischer. He was on a list and the Japanese take such things very seriously. The seriousness of this crime has also doubtless been upgraded since 9/11 so even though Fischer is unlikely to be a terrorist (though one never knows considering his history) he was caught up in the web.

I don't think his comments referenced below helped his chances of avoiding US scrutiny.

In radio interviews, Fischer praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be "wiped out," and described Jews as "thieving, lying *******s." His mother was Jewish.

[Will Durant]

Hey, Jonas,

In your avatar, why would Black play NxP instead of NxQ?

[Jonas Grumby]

Hey, Jonas,

In your avatar, why would Black play NxP instead of NxQ?

Are you kidding?

[Mel-o-rama]

Anyone can see that White's king rook is trapped! NxP can win the rook!

[Jonas Grumby]

I just finished visiting Fischer's website and was truly horrified by the extremeties of both his general insanity and specific anti-Semitism. Should I provide a link to that? You can find it at chessbase.com, so maybe that's direction enough.

[E. Blackadder]

those can be gotten anywhere, so don't bother. Unless he has something original.

[Jonas Grumby]

those can be gotten anywhere, so don't bother. Unless he has something original.

Well, there's craziness, and then there's craziness. Some of the embedded text documents are just bizarre - 33 pages of correspondence with a storage company - demands to the Budapest Chief of Police that he arrest someone. And even more interestingly, Pal Benko as the care-of address for most correspondence.

[Mel-o-rama]

He may be crazy, but does he deserve ten years in jail for playing a game in Yugo-wherever-that-was?

[E. Blackadder]

Actually, no. But once those "he violated international law" people get through, you're gonna think he should get life.

[Jonas Grumby]

Actually, no. But once those "he violated international law" people get through, you're gonna think he should get life.

Not ten years, no, but he should get something. And there's still the taxes issue.

[Macroman]

Actually, no. But once those "he violated international law" people get through, you're gonna think he should get life.

Not ten years, no, but he should get something. And there's still the taxes issue.

If you could get jail time for messing up your life, Bobby Fischer would be right at the front of the line. I don't think anyone has ever taken such a tumble from the absolute pinnacle of a field to the absolute bottom of the human race. It's so sad.

[E. Blackadder]

Nixon; Tyson; Stewart; Joe Wilson; 2Pac. No, strike the last.

This could be a good tangental topic. Bueller? Bueller?!

[Mel-o-rama]

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/12/chun.htm

The title of this article is a clever joke:

Bobby Fischer's Pathetic Endgame

[Will Durant]

The Atlantic article was obviously written by someone who doesn't know that much about chess.

Bobby Fischer has been swindled out of a "vast fortune" in royalties by book publishers, movie studios, and clock manufacturers (yes, clock manufacturers), who have brazenly pilfered his brand name, patents, and copyrights.

Chess analysts, a decidedly reserved lot not given to spasms of hyperbole, peppered their dry annotations with exclamation marks ("Be6!").

As the week wore on, Spassky began slowly to crack, and on September 1 he resigned.

An interesting read, nonetheless.

[Will Durant]

Kasparov's piece in the WSJ.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110005371


Fischer's Price
Chess may have been the only thing that kept the champion in touch with reality.
BY GARRY KASPAROV
Monday, July 19, 2004

The stunning news of Bobby Fischer's detention in Japan came at a moment in which the American former world chess champion was already very much on my mind. I am currently finishing the fourth of my six-volume series on the game's great players and it is precisely this volume of which Robert James Fischer, forever known as Bobby, is the star.

This project has involved going over hundreds of Fischer's chess games in minute detail. It also means trying to understand the man behind the moves and the era in which he made them.

Despite his short stay at the top there is little to debate about the chess of Bobby Fischer. He changed the game in a way that hadn't been seen since the late 19th century. The gap between Mr. Fischer and his contemporaries was the largest ever. He singlehandedly revitalized a game that had been stagnating under the control of the Communists of the Soviet sports hierarchy.

When Bobby Fischer rocketed to the top of the chess world in the early 1970s he was a fine wine in a flawed vessel. His contributions to the game, both at the board and from a commercial perspective, were nothing short of a revolution in the chess world. At the same time, his brittle and abusive character showed cracks that deepened with his every step toward the highest title.

Today, it is hard to imagine the sensation of Mr. Fischer's success when he wrested the world championship away from Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1972. In the middle of the Cold War, the Brooklyn-raised iconoclast took the crown from the well-oiled Soviet machine that had dominated the chess world for decades. And this after he barely showed up for the match at all, and then lost the first game and forfeited the second!

Partially due to Mr. Fischer's outrageous behavior leading up to and during the "match of the century," the international media coverage was incredible. The games were shown live around the world. I was nine years old and already a strong club player when the Fischer-Spassky match took place, and I followed the games avidly. Fischer, who had crushed two other Soviet grandmasters on his march to the title match, nonetheless had many fans in the Soviet Union. They respected his chess, of course, but many quietly enjoyed his individuality and independence.

After the match ended in a convincing victory for the American, the world was at his feet. Chess was on the cusp of becoming a commercially successful sport for the first time. Mr. Fischer's play, nationality and natural charisma created a unique opportunity. He was a national hero whose popularity rivaled that of Muhammad Ali. (Would the secretary of state have called Ali before a fight the way Henry Kissinger called Mr. Fischer?) Sales of chess sets and books boomed, and tournament prize funds soared. With Bobby Fischer in the lead, chess was headed for the popularity of golf and tennis.

With glory, however, comes responsibility and tremendous pressure. Mr. Fischer couldn't bring himself to play again. He spent three years away from the board before the precious title he had worked his entire life for was forfeited without the push of a pawn in 1975.

Astronomical amounts of money were offered to lure him back. He could have played a match against the new champion, Anatoly Karpov, for an unheard of $5 million. Opportunities abounded, but Mr. Fischer's was a purely destructive force. He demolished the Soviet chess machine but could build nothing in its place. He was the ideal challenger--but a disastrous champion.

The conventional wisdom says that Bobby Fischer was a guileless and petulant child who just wanted his own way. I believe he was conscious of all his actions and the psychological effect his behavior had on his opponents. The gentlemanly Mr. Spassky was ill-prepared to deal with the belligerent American in Reykjavik. In 1975, Mr. Fischer's challenger was the young Mr. Karpov, whom I would later meet in five consecutive world championship matches.

Unable to even contemplate defeat, Mr. Fischer left chess. Bereft of the only thing he had ever wanted to do in his life, he turned his destructive energies inward, espousing a virulent anti-Semitism--despite his own Jewish heritage.

The Fischer drama had a final act in 1992, when, almost 50 years old, he was brought out of seclusion by the lure of millions to play a rematch against Mr. Spassky in war-torn Yugoslavia in violation of international sanctions. The chess was predictably rusty, although there were a few flashes of the old Bobby brilliance. His mental stability, however, had atrophied even more during the 20 years of solitude. Later, Mr. Fischer's profane remarks would span from accusations of Jewish conspiracies to a welcoming of the events of 9/11.

Despite the ugliness of his decline, Bobby Fischer deserves to be remembered for the great things he did for chess and for his immortal games. I would prefer to focus on not letting his personal tragedy become a tragedy for chess.

An entire generation of top American players learned the game as kids thanks to Mr. Fischer. Today's flourishing scholastic chess movement could be harmed as his woes and beliefs make headlines around the world. People may believe that this is what happens when a genius plays chess--instead of what happens when a fragile mind leaves his life's work behind.

[Jonas Grumby]

:shake:

http://www.chessbase.com/images2/2004/fischer18.jpg

[Darth Tater]

This one just keeps getting weirder and weirder....

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040816/ap_on_re_as/japan_bobby_fischer_4

[Mel-o-rama]

:shake:

http://www.chessbase.com/images2/2004/fischer18.jpg

No way! Is this the man who did cause the earth to tremble, that did shake many a chessboard?

[Pseudolus]

NYT LINK (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/19/international/asia/19CND-FISC.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1092944902-gKPp6605AeATTuIrmWYmBw)


TOKYO Aug. 19 — In a high-stakes chess game with Japanese immigration authorities, Miyoko Watai, the freshly minted fiancée of Bobby Fischer, acknowledged today that the imprisoned American chess master might be using her as a "pawn."

"I could be a sacrifice pawn," Ms. Watai, the 59-year-old acting president of the Japan Chess Association, said in remarks to reporters intended to explain a faxed statement on Tuesday that she and Mr. Fischer are in love and want to marry.

"But in chess there is such a thing as pawn promotion, where a pawn can become a queen," said Ms. Watai, four times the women's chess champion in Japan. Breaking into a smile, the soft-spoken chess strategist vowed: "Bobby-san is my king, and I will become his queen. We want to win the game by joining hands."

[...]

Ooooooooh-kay.

[Jonas Grumby]

NYT LINK (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/19/international/asia/19CND-FISC.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1092944902-gKPp6605AeATTuIrmWYmBw)


TOKYO Aug. 19 — In a high-stakes chess game with Japanese immigration authorities, Miyoko Watai, the freshly minted fiancée of Bobby Fischer, acknowledged today that the imprisoned American chess master might be using her as a "pawn."

"I could be a sacrifice pawn," Ms. Watai, the 59-year-old acting president of the Japan Chess Association, said in remarks to reporters intended to explain a faxed statement on Tuesday that she and Mr. Fischer are in love and want to marry.

"But in chess there is such a thing as pawn promotion, where a pawn can become a queen," said Ms. Watai, four times the women's chess champion in Japan. Breaking into a smile, the soft-spoken chess strategist vowed: "Bobby-san is my king, and I will become his queen. We want to win the game by joining hands."

[...]

Ooooooooh-kay. :crazy:

I admire your restraint in not using an emoticon. I inserted one for you.

[Darth Tater]

She really takes bad chess analogies to a whoel new level, doesn't she?

Yikes, I hope she does talk to him like that!

"Aw, my mommy's sweet wittle bishop can't come out and pwaaaay? Well, wet's see if his wittle queen can help him."

GAK!! :swear:

[Maine-iac]

C'mon. They're the perfect couple. They both play chess, and they're both nuts.

[Mel-o-rama]

NYT LINK (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/19/international/asia/19CND-FISC.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1092944902-gKPp6605AeATTuIrmWYmBw)


TOKYO Aug. 19 — In a high-stakes chess game with Japanese immigration authorities, Miyoko Watai, the freshly minted fiancée of Bobby Fischer, acknowledged today that the imprisoned American chess master might be using her as a "pawn."

"I could be a sacrifice pawn," Ms. Watai, the 59-year-old acting president of the Japan Chess Association, said in remarks to reporters intended to explain a faxed statement on Tuesday that she and Mr. Fischer are in love and want to marry.

"But in chess there is such a thing as pawn promotion, where a pawn can become a queen," said Ms. Watai, four times the women's chess champion in Japan. Breaking into a smile, the soft-spoken chess strategist vowed: "Bobby-san is my king, and I will become his queen. We want to win the game by joining hands."

[...]

Ooooooooh-kay.

That's almost like a bad pun. Me likes.

[Jonas Grumby]

Fischer also never paid taxes on his foreign winnings. They'll get him with the Al Capone rule!

Aha!

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2266

[Darth Tater]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050318/people_nm/iceland_fischer_dc

More on this....

[Jonas Grumby]

Fischer was released today and is going to Iceland as a citizen - call him Bobby Hansson now I guess.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=peopleNews&storyID=2005-03-24T015103Z_01_T91849_RTRIDST_0_PEOPLE-JAPAN-FISCHER-DC.XML

[Jonas Grumby]

Interesting pics.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2284

[Mel-o-rama]

FYI, I put Bobby Fischer on my Death Pool picks at work for this year.

[r. mutt]

Bobby didn't even pause to draw breath after arriving in Iceland...


3/26/2005
Bobby Fischer
Filed under: Pop culture by John Behan @ 11:23 am

You may have heard that former chess wunderkind Bobby Fischer was released recently from a Japanese prison. He traveled to Iceland, where he’s being given safe haven from extradition to the U.S. for violating sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia by playing an exhibition match against Boris Spassky there in 1992.

Yesterday, it seems, Fischer held a press conference. I just saw highlights, and it was absolutely bizarre. Fischer appears to have completely lost his mind. He railed against ESPN journalist Jeremy Schaap for comments that Schaap’s father, Dick Schaap, had made against Fischer decades ago, but his biggest criticism was that the late Dick Schaap was Jewish.

In fact, Fischer blames Jews for all the problems in his life. At one point in the press conference, Fischer accused “those dirty Jews” for stealing boxes of chess books that Fischer had in storage. Then there’s this:

“The Jew-controlled United States is evil. They talk about the axis of evil. What about the allies of evil? What about the US, England, Japan, Australia and so on? These are the evil doers.”

This is just ridiculous, bigoted stuff, and Fischer is being rightly slammed for his comments today. It’s all such a shame, because Fischer was the very definition of a chess genius in his day, and he’s still the standard by which any chess champion is measured (at least here in the US).

I wish the world could just forget about him now. Bobby Fischer became irrelevant years ago, and he’s done nothing to change that.