Bobby Fischer to leave Japan soon
By: David Mullenax
ALWAYS CONTROVERSIAL and out-spoken, former world chess champion, Bobby Fischer, will be released from a Japanese prison this week and deported to Iceland where he was recently granted citizenship.
Fischer is wanted in the United States for violating sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there in 1992. American officials are disappointed in the recent move by Iceland and are requesting the extradition of Fischer to the States.
Japanese authorities arrested Fischer, 62, early in July on what U.S. spokesmen allege was an invalid passport. The Japanese justice ministry did not offer comment.
Iceland’s granting of citizenship to the chess-master on Monday provided the opportunity for Fischer’s relocation to the North Atlantic republic that was settled by Norwegian and Celtic tribes in the 9th and 10th centuries. Fischer is considered a hero in that country, celebrated for his victory over ex-Soviet Champion Boris Spassky in 1972. The match was played in Iceland.
In 1999, Fischer made headlines after conducting a radio interview with Pablo Mercado where he lashed out at “World Jewry” and Jewish organizations, poignantly declaring to the listening audience that America is “Jewish controlled.”
Mercado, asking questions to Fischer over the controversy in the United States surrounding the chess champion’s stolen memorabilia, asked his guest why he believed the Jews were threatening him.
Fischer answered disgustedly, “They [Jews] just sold it all off - stuff that it took me a lifetime to accumulate. They broke open my safes and they broke open my file cabinets and everything, and just sold off everything… sold off like a hundred boxes of my stuff and sold off my photo album, my letters from President Marcos, my photo album with President Marcos - everything.”
Obviously infuriated by Jewish persecution, Fischer continued his tirade, “You know they invented the Holocaust story. There’s no such thing. There’s no holocaust of the Jews in World War II. They’ve been pulling this sh*t from time immemorial about persecution. They’re liars. That’s all they ever do. That’s all they’ll ever be. Study your history.”
Investigative researchers claim that the harassment of Fischer by Jewish organizations is unnecessary and unwarranted. Referring to Fischer’s visit to sanctioned Yugoslavia in 1973, which provided the legal loop-hole for vindictive organizations to act, fans of the great chess champion call his persecution “tragic”.
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