[mistakes in this article:

1) the victory over Spassky was not touted as a 'cold war' propaganda
coup, and happened at the height of detente;

2) Fischer did not 'disappear' between 1992 and 2001 - he launched
Fischer Random, gave interviews, etc.

Also note that Reuters say "Fischer's supporters say he renewed his
passport in 1997", whereas in fact there is documentary proof of this,
and the US authorities do not dispute it]


From:

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackage...rldNews&storyI
D=565908&section=news:

***BEGIN ARTICLE***

Detained ex-chess champ to take Japanese bride
Mon 16 August, 2004 09:26

By George Nishiyama

TOKYO (Reuters) - Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, wanted by
Washington for defying its sanctions and now in detention in Japan,
wants to marry a Japanese woman, his lawyer says.

Fischer has decided to marry Miyoko Watai, acting head of the Japan
Chess Association, his lawyer Masako Suzuki said.

"Fischer and Watai had been living together since 2000 ... but decided
to take the legal marriage procedures," she said in a statement on
Monday.

Fischer, one of the chess world's great eccentrics, was detained at
Tokyo's Narita airport last month when he tried to leave for Manila on a
passport U.S. officials say was invalid.

The chess grandmaster has been wanted in the United States since 1992,
when he violated U.S. economic sanctions by going to Yugoslavia, where
he won $3 million for beating his old rival Boris Spassky.

It was not immediately clear if he would be allowed to marry while in
detention, or whether marriage to a Japanese national would enable him
to avoid deportation.

Suzuki had previously said that in his bid to avoid deportation to the
United States, Fischer had decided to renounce his U.S. citizenship and
filed for refugee status in Japan, while also seeking other countries
willing to let him stay.

COLD WAR COUP

Fischer became world chess champion in 1972 when he beat Spassky of the
Soviet Union in a victory touted as a Cold War propaganda coup for the
United States.

He lost the title three years later after his conditions for a match
against Anatoly Karpov, also of the Soviet Union, were rejected by chess
officials. Karpov became champion by default.

Japanese immigration authorities moved Fischer last week from a
detention centre at Narita airport to a larger facility some 50 km (30
miles) northeast of Tokyo, a move that Suzuki said could signal that his
stay in Japan could be prolonged.

No reason was given for the transfer, but Suzuki said that, considering
past cases, it was likely Fischer would not be immediately deported but
would be detained there for some time.

Fischer appealed against deportation last month but this was rejected by
Japanese immigration officials. He has filed a second appeal to Justice
Minister Daizo Nozawa.

Fischer vanished after the 1992 match in Yugoslavia but resurfaced after
the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States to give an
interview to a Philippine radio station in which he praised the strikes
and said he wanted to see America "wiped out".

Fischer's supporters say he renewed his passport in 1997 and never
received a letter issued in December 2003 revoking it. U.S. State
Department officials in Washington have said it took years for the legal
process to catch up with him.

Fischer, whose mother was Jewish, has also stirred controversy with
anti-Semitic remarks.

***END ARTICLE***

--
banana "The thing I hate about you, Rowntree, is the way you
give Coca-Cola to your scum, and your best teddy-bear to
Oxfam, and expect us to lick your frigid fingers for the
rest of your frigid life." (Mick Travis, 'If...', 1968)