JAPAN-BOBBY FISCHER
Friend says Fischer will appeal extradition
(Tokyo-AP) – A friend in Japan says former world chess champion
Bobby Fischer will challenge U-S extradition efforts.
The 61-year-old Fischer was detained in Japan earlier this week
as he tried to leave the country and go to the Philippines.
Fischer has been in legal trouble with the U-S since he traveled
to Yugoslavia for a chess tournament in 1992. Authorities say he
violated U-N sanctions imposed against Yugoslavia for provoking
warfare in neighboring Bosnia.
Fischer became a Cold War hero in 1972 when he defeated Boris
Spassky to become world chess champion. He later refused to play
again and virtually dropped out of sight.
In recent years, Fischer’s given radio interviews praising the
September eleventh terrorist attacks, saying America should be
“wiped out.”
He praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be “wiped out,” and described Jews as “thieving, lying bastards.” His mother was Jewish.
Alexander Roshal, of the Russian Chess Federation and chief editor of the chess magazine 64, said he had “mixed emotions” about the former champion.
"On the one hand, Fischer is a tough, notorious and quarrelsome person, but on the other hand he is a chess genius and contributed so much for the development of chess.
“He is a pathologically perverted anti-Semite, which is strange knowing his origin, and I suspect he is not appreciated in America. But on the other hand, he has done so much good for the country and was the only American to defeat the Soviet grandmaster.”
I love chess, and I’ve loved learning Fischer’s games. But what a jerk.
A friend of mine lived downstairs from Fischer and his mother,
told me they fought incessantly. Combine that with genius for
chess and, well, there you have it. Lucky for me I had
no genius for chess. He’s more to be pitied than censured, IMO.
Best
That was a very interesting article. (A side bar: I LOVE WIKIPEDIA!) I’m going to get my board out and play through that.
For those of you who haven’t read “Searching for Bobby Fisher,” I highly recommend it. It’s excellent. And in the book, the dad actually does travel across the country to see if he can find him. I won’t give more away than that.