Posted on 07/20/2004 5:23:30 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
July 20, 2004
Japan to deport Bobby Fischer
By ERIC TALMADGE
NARITA, Japan (AP) - The Japanese government is preparing to deport chess legend Bobby Fischer for staying in this country on an invalid passport, immigration officials said Tuesday.
Fischer was detained at the international airport in this city just outside of Tokyo last Tuesday after trying to board a flight for Manila, Philippines. Immigration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Fischer, 61, has been held in their custody since, and said he was being processed for deportation. They refused to give further details, but said he could appeal their decision.
They said they did not know how long the deportation process would take.
A request by The Associated Press to meet with Fischer was denied by the airport immigration office, which cited "privacy concerns."
Fischer, believed by many to be the greatest chess player ever, has lived in seclusion and semi-secrecy for decades. It remains unclear where he considers home, but after he was taken into custody, friends here said he frequently travelled, staying for short durations in Japan, the Philippines, Germany and other countries.
He was believed to have been in Japan since about April.
Miyoko Watai, a member of the Japan Chess Association and a friend of Fischer, said he did not know that his passport had been revoked when he tried to leave Japan last week. She indicated that Fischer intended to appeal any effort to deport him.
Fischer became the U.S. chess champion at age 14, and a grandmaster at 15.
He became an icon in the United States when he defeated Soviet world champion Boris Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik, Iceland. The games, in 1972, came at the height of the Cold War and were hailed in the United States as a major victory.
His hero status quickly faded amid his increasingly eccentric behaviour, however. He lost his title as world champion in 1978 and then largely vanished from the public eye.
Fischer is wanted in the United States for playing a rematch against Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992. Yugoslavia was under international sanctions at the time, and U.S. citizens were banned from doing business there.
Fischer won the match, and more than $3 million US in prize money.
Seems like a private person. Chess is a very introverted pass time, at least that is my impression so I guess his reclusiveness should not be to surprising.
He was trying to leave...so why deport him??
The Japan trip...BAD move.
There might be a legal reason, such as a prohibition of deported individuals from re-entering the country for a set number of years.
The timing of this makes it related to the Jenkins case...which is the real issue at hand. The US must demand Fischer so they can demand Jenkins. Japan is showing that they are willing to honor the treaty with the US.
It will be interesting to see what negotiations go on for Jenkins in light of this event.
Bobby Fischer once called Japan a "puppet state" of the US.
Guess they didn't take to kindly to that.
I learn something everyday. Why doesn't he just stay in Japen?
His intelligence must be going, trying to get past customs on an invalid (expired?) passport was stupid.
Presumably the revocation is connected with the federal arrest warrant issued in 1992.
Also he's been badmouthing America vis-a-vis Islamic terrorism in recent years, which probably pushed his warrant a bit higher up on the stack.
This is but the tip of the iceberg, the most recent development in the story. I encourage you to search "Bobby Fischer" on FR for discussion of this since Friday, and a lot more can be learned by reading articles on www.chessbase.com, a website for one of the best chess database software available, but also covering recent events in chess. Also read the links within each article, but search FR first.
In short, Bobby has said some heinous things, but I'm convinced he's developed acute mental illness, maybe Asperger's syndrome, maybe paranoid schizophrenia, and these are manifestations of that. How it has played out in his life is truly tragic. He's done more for American chess than anyone, and a one point in time was a national Hero perhaps like no other, rivaling the US olympic hockey team and a Cold War champion.
He lost his title in 1975 when he refused to play challenger Karpov. FIDE did not agree to his (Fischer's) match conditions.
bttfl
Though not "acute," I agree with you, Fischer has been symptomatic for mental illness for over two decades.
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