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Fischer Latest Individualist Icelandic Immigrant (AP Ignores Anti-Semitism, Anti-Americanism)
AP Breaking News ^

Posted on 03/27/2005 3:21:56 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest

Mar 27, 2005 Bobby Fischer Latest in a Line of Individualist Immigrants to Iceland By Jill Lawless Associated Press Writer

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - New Icelandic citizen Bobby Fischer is volatile, uncompromising and defiantly eccentric. He should fit right in.

Tiny, wind-lashed Iceland has long drawn artists, loners and dreamers attracted by its remoteness, empty spaces and otherworldly, lava-strewn landscape - the very conditions that kept most migrants away and helped forge the proud, independent Icelandic character.

"What was it Buzz Aldrin said about the moon? 'Magnificent desolation' - that's Iceland," said Jose Tirado, a U.S.-born Buddhist priest who has lived near Reykjavik for four years. "Iceland affords the natural inspiration to spend as much time as you like in your head, formulating ideas."

As a result, he said, "Everybody here has a guitar or a poem, some artwork or a play."

Chess icon Fischer, who spent nine months in Japanese detention fighting extradition to the United States, was granted citizenship last week by the country that was the site of his greatest triumph - a 1972 world championship victory in Reykjavik over Cold War rival Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.

Chicago-born, Brooklyn-bred Fischer, wanted in the United States for playing a 1992 rematch against Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions, arrived in Iceland on Thursday. The next day, he told journalists: "I was crazy to leave."

He may be right. If any country is willing to overlook Fischer's erratic behavior and often extreme pronouncements, it's Iceland.

The rugged volcanic island whose most famous exports are fish and flamboyant singer Bjork takes a forgiving attitude to personal eccentricity.

"There's a respect for individual autonomy here," said Tirado, 45, who writes, studies and teaches meditation classes to Icelanders. "In Iceland, you're free enough to be rude. They tolerate anybody, though that doesn't mean they approve."

Fischer's arrival has drawn attention to Iceland's immigrants, a small but remarkably diverse group in a traditionally homogeneous country.

Large-scale immigration is a relatively new phenomenon for a country where almost everyone is descended from 9th-century Viking settlers.

The number of foreign-born residents has doubled in the past decade, but is still only 10,000 people, just more than 3 percent of the population. There are Portuguese construction workers building a major dam in the east of the country, Poles working in northern fish factories and Thai cleaners in Reykjavik's hotels, as well as a smattering of young Europeans and North Americans attracted by the country's coziness, strong social safety net and high standard of living.

"It was clean, peaceful, isolated - just what I wanted," said Paul F. Nikolov, an American journalist who moved here six years ago. "Not at all like Baltimore."

The downside is that immigrants often feel like a very visible minority. Many complain it is difficult to gain acceptance from Icelanders.

"Most people ask me why I am here," said Mustapha Moussaoui, an Algerian who works as a chef in a Reykjavik cafe. "And when you work with Icelanders, they won't treat you as a friend for the first year or two - until they get to know you and respect you."

Then there's the weather - "depressing, dark, icy."

"To be honest, it's a really hard life here," said Moussaoui, who is married to an Icelandic woman.

The bill granting Fischer citizenship passed through Iceland's parliament in just 12 minutes.

But for most others, it's not easy to become an Icelander. Those who get a residence permit - usually conditional on a job offer - must wait seven years before they can apply for citizenship, a process that involves multiple forms, character references and often extensive medical tests.

Under tough new rules introduced in 2003 that have been criticized by some human-rights groups, immigrants married to Icelanders cannot apply for a residence permit if they are younger than 24, and relatives of naturalized citizens may not join their family in Iceland until they are 67.

"Twelve minutes!" said Kenyan-born waitress Sheba Wanjiku, shaking her head in disbelief at Fischer's luck. "It's taking me five years."

AP-ES-03-27-05 1403EST

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBE9EEMT6E.html

# Go Back To The Story


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bobbyfischer; iceland
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Don't you just love the way AP tidies up Bobby Fischer's ugly anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism? If anyone saw his press conference, shown on ESPN, in which he accused "the Jews" of all sort of evil, you know what I mean.

The closest AP comes to revealing the truth about Fischer is to allude to his "extreme pronouncements." Do you think they'd do the same if the nutjob in question had said similarly negative things about blacks or Arabs, or might the headline have read "Racist Fischer Slinks off to Iceland"?

1 posted on 03/27/2005 3:21:58 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Here's what Fischer had to say about September 11th, by the way:

"I applaud the act. The U.S. and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians, just slaughtering them for years. Robbing them and slaughtering them. Nobody gave a s---. Now it's coming back to the U.S. F--- the U.S. I want to see the U.S. wiped out."


2 posted on 03/27/2005 3:24:22 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

bobby fischer is a non-entity. waste-of-bandwidth alert.


3 posted on 03/27/2005 3:30:53 PM PST by the invisib1e hand ("remember, from ashes you came, to ashes you will return.")
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To: the invisib1e hand

Who died and appointed you the Bandwidth Policeman?

Fischer has attracted a good bit of attention in recent days, and I think it's worthwhile to draw attention to the biased way in which he is being covered by the MSM.

Also, I doubt that most Americans, including FReepers, are aware of just how virulent his anti-American, and anti-Semitic, statements have been, and thus think it worthwhile to have reproduced one.


4 posted on 03/27/2005 3:34:06 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
Bobby's mother was Jewish wasn't she?

I cannot explain anti-semitism on the part of any Jew, or former Jew.

It's simply strange.

On the other hand, he did come down on the right side when it came to Yugoslavia. Last thing we should have been doing was tieing ourselves to the Albanians. They provided many more than their fair share of SS in WWII, and haven't changed any of their core attitudes.

Kind of wonder if Bobby knows that.

5 posted on 03/27/2005 3:34:51 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

Fischer is definitely Jewish by birth. In the press conference shown on ESPN, he relly got into it with Jewish ESPN reporter Jeremy Schapp.

By the way, when Fischer asked Schapp if he was Jewish, Schapp asked if it wasn't true that Fischer's mother was Jewish, and Fischer changed the subject.

As to explaining Fischer's anti-Semitism, I'd say that being insane helps ;-)


6 posted on 03/27/2005 3:37:57 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: the invisib1e hand

*Who* is Bobby Fischer.....?


7 posted on 03/27/2005 3:39:17 PM PST by Stellar Dendrite (But, I thought liberals want to help the "little guy"?)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

Fischer is the only American only to have been the world chess champion. Here's a bio I found on the internet:

Robert James Fischer was born on 9 March 1943 in Chicago.

It is a terrible shame to me that such a brilliant chess player should have turned out to be such an obnoxious individual later in life.

Bobby Fischer started playing chess at 6, and from a very young age he attended the Brooklyn Chess Club and was coached by Carmine Nigro, the club's president.

Fischer was so preoccupied by chess that his mother, Regina, took him to the Children's Psychiatric Division of the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital; but the doctor there, Harold Kline told Mrs Fischer he thought there were worse preoccupations and Bobby Fischer's zest for the game continued unabated.

In 1955 Fischer joined the Manhattan Chess Club and then the Hawthorne Chess Club where he was mentored by Jack Collins.

In July 1956 Bobby Fischer won the US junior championship - the youngest player to do so.

At 14 years and 9 months Fischer became US Champion, a title he was to gain eight times.

As his playing continued to thrive so did his personal life grow more difficult. He fell out with his mother and his disagreements with tournament organisers were escalating.

In the mid-1960s Fischer became involved with a sect called the Worldwide Chuch of G-d, which led him to refuse to play during the sect's sabbath.

Fischer's run-up to the World Championship against Spassky in Rejkavik, Iceland in 1972 was extraordinary. He won an amazing twenty consecutive games against some of the top players in the world. First he defeated former world champion Tigran Petrosian and then he whitewashed Mark Taimanov 6-0 and repeated the feat with a 6-0 victory in the semi-finals against Bent Larsen.

Against the backdrop of the Cold War Fischer defeated Soviet Boris Spassky in what became known as the "chess match of the century". During the match Fischer complained about the site, the prize fund, the organisers, FIDE; even to the extent of the match having to be postponed.

Fischer lost the first game and forfeited the second and then refused to play the third on the stage and insisted on playing in an ill-furnished back-room - Spassky lost the game and eventually the match.

But then Fischer withdrew from competition, and three years later, the World Chess Federation stripped him of his title for failing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov.

Since then, apart from a bizarre Fischer-Spassky rematch in Yugoslavia in 1992, which Fischer won 10-5 with 15 draws that provoked the wrath of the US government as it defied their sanctions against Yugoslavia, Fischer has not actively played chess (unless as some people including Nigel Short have posited - on the internet).

Fischer disappeared. He apparently spent several years in central Europe before moving to Tokyo.

Totally reclusive he emerged only to utter anti-Semitic rubbish in radio interviews and his support for the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.

Fischer said of 'September 11' on a radio show in the Philippines: "This is all wonderful news. It is time to finish off the US once and for all."

His anti-semitism was nothing new, although his mother was Jewish. In 1962 Fischer was quoted as saying: "There are too many Jews in chess. They seem to have taken away the class from the game. They don't seem to dress so nicely, you know. That's what I don't like."

And in 1984 Fischer wrote an open letter to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, asking that his entry be removed, saying: "try to promote your religion on its own merits - if indeed it has any."

In 2004 Japan arrested Bobby Fischer, wanted by the US for breaking international sanctions (his Yugoslavia re-match with Spassky).

Fischer was detained at Tokyo's Narita airport, apparently with an invalid passport.

There have been recent disclosures about Fischer's background, with the release of FBI files on Fischer's mother Regina. If I understand the documents correctly they seem to suggest that Fischer's actual father was a Jewish man, Dr Paul Felix Nemenyi, and not as had been assumed a German biophysicist named Gerhardt.

It seems the most savoury thing to do is to end up by focussing on Fischer's great chess skills. Garry Kasparov states in his Foreword to Agur's "Fischer - his Approach to Chess":

"Fischer's achievement is unsurpassed - the gap between him and his rivals was the widest there ever was between a World Champion and the other top-ranking players at the time. He was some 10-15 years ahead of his time in his preparation and understanding."

The other thing I would add is that Fischer's book, "My 60 Memorable Games" is a superbly entertaining and instructive book.


8 posted on 03/27/2005 3:42:37 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: Stellar Dendrite
*Who* is Bobby Fischer.....?

exactly.

9 posted on 03/27/2005 3:43:41 PM PST by the invisib1e hand ("remember, from ashes you came, to ashes you will return.")
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To: Stellar Dendrite

PS: great line about the last goose in OH. Now there's one goose who earned his Purple Heart.


10 posted on 03/27/2005 3:43:50 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: the invisib1e hand

I see you're still at it. I believe Invisible asked the question sincerely.

Even if you hold your breath, it won't make unpleasant individuals such as Fischer go away.


11 posted on 03/27/2005 3:45:08 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
Fischer is 'Bark at the Moon' mad and has been for a long time. Seriously that guy exhibits all the traits of a paranoid schizophrenic.
12 posted on 03/27/2005 3:45:56 PM PST by Borges
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To: governsleastgovernsbest; the invisib1e hand

I *know* who Bobby Fischer is...

I keep seeing these stories about him posted, and pose the same exact question.... "Who is Bobby Fischer". I get the typical response from those who don't know that I'm joking, they tell me what a great chess player he is and so on.
Let me point out that I am the greatest monopoly player in the world, I love America, so why isn't the AP coming to interview me?


13 posted on 03/27/2005 3:48:17 PM PST by Stellar Dendrite (But, I thought liberals want to help the "little guy"?)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

Sorry, but as you know, humor and irony can get lost in the cyber-translation.


14 posted on 03/27/2005 3:50:22 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

The poor man's a borderline schizophrenic. He, at least, has an excuse. All I can say is maybe the omega 3 and 6 fatty-acid-enriched, fish heavy diet will calm his miswired brain. I cannot hold him more responsible for his ravings than the crazy lady at the bus depot. May the Saint who watches over loons do his best. You never know, one of these days the disease may loosen its grip on him, like the "Beautiful Mind" guy.


15 posted on 03/27/2005 3:57:11 PM PST by sinanju
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To: sinanju

I basically agree with you. Anyone who is that great a chess player likely has his brain wired a bit differently from the average person.


16 posted on 03/27/2005 3:59:08 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Send Bobby Fischer to the Dark Side of the Moon with nothing but a chess board and a revolver.


17 posted on 03/27/2005 4:02:37 PM PST by Liberator
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To: Stellar Dendrite
Look, I've stood off as many as 5 family members single handedly in Monopoly.

It's simply a natural talent of mine ~ requires no thought at all, and I always end up owning everything and having all the cash.

So, to my knowledge, you are at best the "second best" Monopoly player in the world.

I don't get interviewed either!

18 posted on 03/27/2005 4:02:53 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Free spirits used to head for Tahiti. Even free spiritism is dumbing down.


19 posted on 03/27/2005 4:06:52 PM PST by Graymatter (---a Terri Schiavo Republican)
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To: muawiyah

If neither have you, as I suspect is the case, have ever made a virulent anti-Semitic statement, or acclaimed 9/11, you have no one to blame but yourselves for the lack of MSM interest.


20 posted on 03/27/2005 4:08:04 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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