Bobby Fischer updates

By Frank "Boy" Pestaño
Chessmoso

TO RECALL, when Bobby agreed to play Boris Spassky for the second time in 1992 in Yugoslavia, he was warned by the State Department that he faced a possible fine of $250,000 or 10 years in prison or both. Yugoslavia was then under sanctions by the United Nations for its war in Bosnia. Bobby of course played the match against Spassky and now he is in deep trouble as the US is now after him and has cancelled his passport.

Last July 13, he was arrested at the Narita Airport in Japan while he was on his way to the Philippines and now faces a possible deportation to the USA and jail sentence.

MIYOKO WATAI. His supporters in Japan include John Bosnitch, a former US junior chess champion, long-time friend Miyoko Watai, who is a four-time Women Japanese champion, lawyer Masako Suzuki and Ichiji Ishii, a former minister of foreign affairs and founder of a chess club.

Their strategy is for Fischer to renounce his US citizenship, acquire German citizenship and/or marry Watai, who claims she and Fischer have been living together for several years now. Fischer supporters have submitted a certified copy of his birth certificate to the German Embassy in Tokyo, which indicates he was born to a German father, Hans Gerhardt Fischer. If Germany establishes his citizenship, then he would be deported to that country where there is no extradition treaty with the US regarding German nationals.

ANTI-AMERICAN. Fischer is also seeking the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for politically persecuted and stateless persons. After all, I believe that Bobby is being arrested now because of his anti-American ranting, his delight at what happened to the US on 9/11, which includes saying, “I want the US wiped out,” and calling George W. Bush “borderline retarded.”

Bosnitch has also informed the Japanese Government that Fischer and Watai have completed and signed the Japanese legal documents for marriage. ”If the officials were to deport Bobby, they would be depriving a Japanese woman of her man whom she has lived with for four years.”

However, the US State Department in a statement said that Fischer would not escape prosecution even if he renounces his citizenship and marries a Japanese.

“Renunciation does not allow a person to escape possible prosecution for crimes that they may have committed in the United States.” His best bet seems to be to acquire the German citizenship of his father. Already there is a large movement among chess players in Germany to free Bobby.

Last Aug. 24, the Japanese Justice Minister in a surprise move, issued an order to deport him that same day. However, Fischer’s lawyers filed a lightning appeal that will probably delay his deportation for a month on the grounds that his deportation would be a flagrant violation of his right and protection under Japanese law.

BABY GIRL. Although Watai seemed to be serious on their marriage, Bobby has a girlfriend named Justine, a 22-year-old Chinese-Filipina living in Manila with whom he has a baby girl born in 2000.

This has been kept secret by his close friends and this was probably the reason why Bobby was on his way to Manila as he “regularly sends money to Justine and their child and visits them every two months.” Bobby’s friends hope that this child will fill the void in his life that chess once occupied. Also, Justine doesn’t care so much about chess and has no intention of writing a tell-all memoir.

Bobby is a tormented soul. The death of his sister, Joan, with whom he was very close to, and his mother, whom he had reconciled with in the late 1990s, and not being able to attend their funeral were great blows to him.

He is not entirely repudiating the land of his birth. According to a long-time friend, Bobby will go home if he knew he would not be prosecuted. If ever he will be convicted, this will be the first time that a person will go to jail………for playing chess!!