Iceland grants citizenship to Bobby Fisher

[JI7]

<Iceland, the country where Bobby Fischer won the world chess championship a generation ago, granted citizenship to the 62-year-old recluse Monday — a boost to Fischer's efforts to fight deportation from Japan to the United States.

Fischer, who is wanted by the United States for violating economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a highly publicized match there in 1992, has been in Japanese custody since July 13. He was detained while trying to board a flight with an invalid passport.

Immigration officials in Iceland said a passport for Fischer could be ready as early as Tuesday.

The legislation, which passed with 40 members of parliament voting in favor and two abstaining, took effect immediately. The 21 other members of the Althingi were absent.

Fischer and his supporters have staged several high-profile attempts to fight the deportation order. >

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-03-21-fischer_x.htm

[unhappycamper]

1. Rummy will have him rendered within 2 months.

[Nikepallas]

2. so the US govt thinks he is a massive threat because of a chess game?

Maybe I am too young to understand all this Bobby Fisher hype. :shrug:

I just don't see the big deal.

[grumpy old fart]

3. dude "broke the law" by going to play a game of f***ing chess.....

and the U.S. hunts him down like a rat. Meanwhile on the UBL hunt....

When I was a kid, Fischer was an American hero for smacking the Ruskies silly. Cold War and all ya know. But Bobby (a real loon, chess genius, but loon) spat on the U.S. and didn't play nice with his Amerikan masters. Hence, the witch hunt.

[SOS]

26. Romania

violated the sanctions in a very big way. Yugoslavian jets were allowed to refuel in Romania throughout the sanctions period. Now Romania is in the US "coalition" in Iraq.
Typical US hypocrisy.

[LdyGuique]

4. The only thing you need to know is "bullshit"

At this point, it's hard to remember the hype about the Yugoslavia sanction, but it was similar to all of the other sanctions the government has been attempting to impose on other countries. Although, a chess match, would hardly seem to be a major weapon of mass distruction.

Bobby Fisher was a Cold War "hero" way back when he took on the major Russian Champions and won. This is why Iceland views him with affection.

Of course, he's always been a maverick personality and is now severely embittered over his home country's totalitarian viewpoints that he's become Anti-American, which we know where THAT doesn't play very well.

Halliburton sold goods and services to Iran recently through its Canary Island affiliate and didn't receive any sanctions -- received even more contracts for Iraq.

It's rather similar to Terri Shiavo versus the law that Bush signed in 1999 allowing for disconnects due to "persistent vegetative state" (Texas Chapter 166).

[Chris H]

10. Bobby Fischer: Poisonous Little Bigot

Of course, he's always been a maverick personality and is now severely embittered over his home country's totalitarian viewpoints that he's become Anti-American, which we know where THAT doesn't play very well.

This is giving Bobby Fischer way too much credit, and casts him as a romantic rebel, rather than what he is: a poisonous, paranoid little anti-semite who plays chess very well. Fischer can barely utter a phrase without blaming everything on the Jews, and has repeated every anti-Jewish slander of the last 2,000 years, from the blood libel to denial of the Holocaust. (He has referred to the Shoah as a "money-making invention.") Take a look at his own website]: he repeatedly refers to the U.S. as "the Jew-controlled U.S.A.," or some variation thereof.

Immediately following 9/11, he gave an interview on a Manila radio station in which he celebrated the bombings gleefully:

"This is all wonderful news. It is time to finish off the US once and for all.

"I was happy and could not believe what was happening. All the crimes the US has committed in the world. This just shows, what goes around comes around, even to the US.

"I applaud the act. The US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians for years. Now it is coming back at the US."

In short, Robert James Fischer can rot in hell.

[Yupster]

12. Welcome to DU Chris

and I agree with you.

I read a story in ChessLife just a couple years ago about what a pathertic person Fischer has become. Acting like he's a protestor gives him way too much credit.

He was a crazy prima-donna in the 60's, but at least he was ours.

Now he seems to be in some fantasy world somewhere between Michael Jackson's and James Bond's.

I lost my patience with him when he refused to defend his World Title against Karpov that he won from Spassky, and that was a good 15 years before the anti-Semitism stuff seemed to take over his life.

[Chris H]

16. Thankee

Thanks. Glad to be here.

Chess champions as a whole aren't the most stable individuals in the world. I used to have the CD soundtrack from the play "Chess," which had great liner notes on the history of chess competitions and the conflicts around them, including one player who accused his opponent of getting secret messages in the foam on his coffee.

[allemand]

14. Or maybe just a mentally ill person who needs help?

BTW, his mother was Jewish and probably also his father.

[girl gone mad]

18. Bobby Fischer is himself Jewish.

And schizophrenic. He needs help and medication, not personal insults.

If you knew about his childhood, the tribulations his mother endured and the erratic manner in which he was subsequently raised, you might find it in your heart to have a bit of sympathy.

OF course the things he writes and says are horrible, but they are the rantings of a untreated schizophrenic, not of an evil bigot.

[AngryAmish]

22. Bobby Fischer is a raving anti-semite

I think Clinton's anti-Serbian sanctions were worthwhile.

He may be mentally ill, but he most likely is also be culpable for his acts.

If he does time in the stoney lonesome, I may just raise a glass.

[girl gone mad]

27. Culpable for what acts?

Or do you believe people should be imprisoned for speech?

[AngryAmish]

28. Taking money from a fasicst government

He is not being locked up for his speech, he is being locked up for his acts.

[allemand]

29. The money should have been used to buy weapons instead of feeding an

impoverished chess genius...

BTW, the match was sponsored by a shady banker, Jezdimir Vasiljevic, not by the Yugoslav government.

And never doubt the wisdom of an executive order signed by Poppy Bush...

[lies and propaganda]

25. Welcome Chris...

Prepare to become obsessed, it happens quickly.

:beer:

[Journeyman]

7. The "threat" is more for violations of economic sanctions. . .

than it is the chess game, but this has no bearing on your second comment.

For those not alive in 1972, the quirky antics and chauvinistic aura of Fischer's match with Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland, cannot be appreciated. You definitely had to live it.

As a high school student I wasn't all that aware of the pending match -- an ignorance shared by most in the nation, I'm sure -- but our attention was certainly captured the first day of the event, when Fischer didn't show for the game and forfeited it. It was brilliant -- it was the chess world's equivalent of talking trash on the court -- and it completely unnerved the Russian while it captivated the American public. Here was a guy so supremely confident of his ability he gave the first shot to the other guy. . . and made it a free shot, at that. It was brash, it was arrogant, it was every negative you could think of, and it was brilliant because it worked.

Fischer went on to beat Spassky (who knows by what score; I'm doing this all from memory), but he truly won the match the first day, when he lost the first game by default.

[wtmusic]

8. quirky Fischer is also VIRULENTLY and VOCALLY anti-Semitic

does that factor in? I wouldn't be surprised

[Journeyman]

9. Oh, it may, but the legal action he's wanted for is based in economics...

and undoubtedly will be used to muffle him.

Whatever the intent or reasons for his anti-Semitism (his mother is Jewish, iirc), it doesn't detract from the brilliance of his play or the theatrics of his win in Reykjavik.

[Yupster]

13. I remember watching each game on PBS

back in 72. That was glittering entertainment.

There was Shelby Lyman sitting with a couple of guest analysts in a bare studio with a chess board and an AP wire type machine. They'd sit around chatting and then a move would come in and they'd talk about it.

I loved it. Guess I needed more friends back then.

[InvisibleTouch]

5. Just saw the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" a few days ago.

It's not really about Bobby Fischer, but it does show bits and pieces of his life and career. Great film, if you haven't seen it, even if you know nothing about chess. True story of another child prodigy chess player, and the emphasis is more on the human interrelations than on the details of the game. You wouldn't think a chess game could be a high-tension exciting event in a movie, but believe me, it is.

Here's a link, for those interested:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6305910340/qid=1111435416/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-2449417-6332004?v=glance&s=dvd

As to Fischer himself, I'm of the mind that if he wants to be a recluse somewhere in the world, he should be allowed to. What harm has he done, after all? None that I can see.

[Yupster]

15. I directed a state junior championship

for the USCF over a decade ago.

The way the parents are portrayed in that movie is very accurate. I had to have them removed from the playing room too.

[InvisibleTouch]

24. That was a great scene.

The parents told they were expected to act like adults, and then herded off into a corral like cattle! Heh.

[Chicago Democrat]

6. I am pleased....

:)

[Snap]

11. Yeah Iceland

A beautiful and crazy nation. Some very committed chess nuts and good readers there. And a good way to say Fuck You to the U.S.

[Fleshdancer]

17. Who cares about Ken Lay...let's go after that evil chess player

Let they guy go for cryin' out loud! This is absolutely ridiculous. Tom Delay could play chess in Yugoslavia while laundering millions of dollars and snorting coke off a hookers' ass and he STILL wouldn't catch any heat from it.

Must be because chess is for sushi eatin' latte drinkin' sissy liberals.

[ozone_man]

19. Iceland is a fitting home for him.

Anyone around during the 70's probably played a lot of chess on account of him. It was a phenomenon. I think there may have been a recurrence of chess interest a year or two ago, probably a generational thing. The parents who played chess in the 70's teaching their kids to play in the 2000's.

His problems seem to come about from his outspoken nature, and when he spoke out against the U.S. and the jewish control of the U.S., it looks like he is being persecuted as a result, which isn't surprising.

Good move by Iceland.

[tsuki]

20. US cannot find Osama, but go after the real threat...recluse Bobby

Fischer.

Thanks be to Dubya, saving us from the terraists.

[hvn_nbr_2]

21. We kept Cat Stevens out. Now if we can just get Bobby Fischer in...

we'll all be safe. Till next week. Do I have to say <end sarcasm>?

[tsuki]

23. I have been on sarcasm overload since November.

It is the only way I can cope with all the stupidity.