Fischer Gets Break As Iceland Grants Him Full Citizenship (IT'S OFFICIAL)

Japan Times ^ | March 23, 2005

[srm913]

After nearly nine months of detention in an immigration facility north of Tokyo, chess legend Bobby Fischer appeared to have cleared the final hurdle Tuesday on his way to freedom.

News photo Bobby Fischer

In a major breakthrough for Fischer, who is being held for allegedly traveling on a revoked U.S. passport, Iceland's Parliament on Monday granted the former world champion and notorious eccentric full citizenship, opening the way for him to leave Japan for that country.

"If he has (Icelandic) citizenship, I understand it is legally possible for him to leave Japan, and in the event of that situation, I believe the immigration authorities will consider the matter appropriately," Justice Minister Chieko Noono told a news conference Tuesday morning in response to the move in Iceland.

Masako Suzuki, one of Fischer's lawyers, said that she expected Fischer to be released from the immigration facility in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, within the week. "Unless something very unexpected happens, that would be the natural course of events," she said.

Iceland is where Fischer won the world championship in 1972, defeating Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in a classic Cold War showdown that propelled Fischer to international stardom.

Bolstered by the news, supporters visited Fischer outside the Ushiku center where he remained in custody. Miyoko Watai, his longtime companion, said Fischer was "very happy" after hearing the news.

Following his arrest in July at Narita International Airport, Fischer and his team of lawyers had fought an order that he be deported to the United States, where he is wanted for violating international sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a high-profile, and lucrative, exhibition match there.

Fischer, 62, has since lived up to his reputation as unpredictable -- he has said he wants to unilaterally renounce his U.S. citizenship, demanded political refugee status, and announced he intends to marry his longtime companion, Miyoko Watai, who heads the Japanese chess federation. Fischer's fight took a major turn for the better this month, when a delegation of Icelandic supporters visited him and pushed officials to allow his release. Iceland's government granted him a special passport, and when Tokyo indicated that wasn't enough, on Monday granted him full citizenship.

The process still required a formal presidential signature, which was expected later Tuesday, Suzuki said.

"It is clear that there is no need to detain him anymore," she said. "He wants to leave Japan immediately."

The Justice Ministry is expected to decide on whether to allow Fischer to leave Japan once it receives formal notice from Reykjavik through diplomatic routes on the granting of citizenship.

Under domestic immigration law, Fischer is to be deported to his country of national origin, which is the United States, or a country where he has citizenship.

Several senior ministry officials said there would be two choices for Fischer once his Icelandic citizenship is formalized, and that generally speaking, his preference should be given priority.

Fischer became an icon when he dethroned Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America's first world chess championship in more than a century.

But a few years later he refused to defend the title against another Soviet, Anatoly Karpov. He then fell into obscurity before resurfacing to play an exhibition rematch against Spassky in the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

Fischer won the rematch on the resort island of Sveti Stefan. But the match was played in violation of sanctions imposed to punish then-President Slobodan Milosevic. If convicted, Fischer, who hasn't been to the United States since then, could face 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

A federal grand jury in Washington is also investigating possible money-laundering charges involving Fischer, Richard J. Vattuone, one of his lawyers, said this month.

Fischer was reported to have received $3.5 million from the Spassky rematch. He boasted at the time that he didn't intend to pay any income tax on the winnings.

It wasn't immediately clear if going to Iceland would help Fischer avoid extradition to the United States if he is charged. The two countries have an extradition treaty.

[srm913]

Madness is the occupational hazard of chess. You won't find any group of people more zonked-out. It's said that Grand Master Paul Morphy was found dead sitting up fully clothed in a bathtub floating with women's shoes.

[cricket]

Good; he's found a home. . .

[cricket]

'And they can support his weird ass.'

Works for me. . .

[StoneColdGOP]

This guy is CRAZY.

I heard some interview clips of him on Bill Handel's radio show this morning. He's convinced the USA and the Jews are out to get him.

He was actually PRAISING the 9/11 attacks and hoping for more Americans and Jews to die.

And that was the mild stuff...

I used to want to visit Iceland.

[Barney Gumble]

I think it's a mere minority of players that are "mad" as you say, but thank you for characterizing all of us as such.

Some can a bit kooky but the "Fischers" are quite rare. Morphy hadnt played chess in 25 years when he was found dead. I think Morphy's madness perhaps came from the failure of his law practice (due to his opposition of the civil war).

[Rio]

Ten years in prison for playing an illegal game of chess?

[GSlob]

"And they can support his weird ass. "
He could probably support himself with ease by conducting an advanced chess school. Also I remember reading somewhere that investment firms were recruiting chess players at master's level and up for their analytical skills - he'd fit there, too.

[Alberta's Child]

What a bunch of nonsense.

He could have played 1,000 games of chess on top of a pile of corpses in Tiananmen Square, and nobody in the U.S. government would have said a damn thing. In fact, they probably would have named him an "Ambassador of Goodwill and Promoter of Trade with Most Favored Nations" or something like that.

He may be a loony-tune, but I'm rooting for him.

[dfwgator]

See you Bobby, say hello to Bjork for me.

[Khurkris]

IMO, This concern about Fischer has gone on much longer than it warrants. I just do not find it as interesting as the media seems to think we all should.

[RichInOC]

...and they can have him.

I'm not sure who's crazier: Fischer, or the Althing members who approved his citizenship bill.

[dfwgator]

Ten years in prison for playing an illegal game of chess?

Then they need to send Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, and Leonardo DiCaprio to prison for illegally traveling to Cuba and meeting with Fidel.

[Rembrandt_fan]

I love the game, although I'll always remain a patzer, and play out grandmaster games at home to relax. The incidence of mental illness among world class grandmasters is simply too high to be a statistical aberration: Morphy, Steinitz, Alekhine, Fisher--the list goes on, but those are the ones who immediately come to mind. This high incidence of instability and sometimes outright insanity might be due to the enormous mental strain entailed in such a profession, or perhaps because minds possessing that particular gift are vulnerable to instability. There has been much conjecture on the subject but little formal research insofar as I know.

Phillip Sergeant wrote an incisive biography of Morphy, "The Unknown Morphy," focusing largely on his decision to quit chess and thankfully free of any pseudo-Freudian analysis of Morphy's mental problems. It is clear, though, that the failure of Morphy's law practice was the result of his 'problem', not the cause. His behavior over time was becoming increasingly eccentric--and noticeable--in an occupation that relies on a reputation for stability. Morphy was a lifelong bachelor, a 'dandy' without any known female acquaintances other than family. Not that his sexuality detracts from his genius or accomplishments, but it might've been a factor in his eventual breakdown.

Bobby Fisher behaves too rationally for me to discount his vicious antisemitic ravings as solely the result of mental illness, unless evil is a mental illness. I do think, however, that he should be pardoned. I still remember the thrill my brother and I felt as children when he singlehandedly beat Spassky and the Russian Machine at the height of the Cold War. He gave our country a psychological boost when we needed one most, and that service should count. That said, I wouldn't want him as a neighbor.

[Alberta's Child]

If you understood Fischer's background, his anti-Semitic rantings might make more sense.

His Jewish mother was well-known among the radical Bolshevik circles of New York City in the post-WW2 era. Fischer himself even has an FBI file that dates back to that time because of her involvement with known Communists from that era. She used the local chess club in Brooklyn as a free babysitting service, dropping him off there on a regular basis just so he could have something to do while she worked, commiserated with her Communist friends, etc.

[Rembrandt_fan]

I had a lousy childhood--probably worse than Fischer's-- and carried around that baggage for years until I grew up, more or less, at forty. He, like me, has free will. If capable of rational thought and a measure of self-honesty, he can choose not to be a traitorous, spiteful, hate-filled monster. Of course, unlike Fischer, I've never been rich or famous (nor likely to be), so I don't know what those kind of pressures can do to an already fragile psyche.

[Mr. Mulliner]

With his anti-Americanism and anti-semitism, Fischer could achieve celebrity status in Europe.