Edited for brevity.
Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, wanted since 1992 for playing a tournament in Yugoslavia despite U.N. sanctions, has been detained in Japan, clearing the way for his extradition to the United States. Fischer was stopped at Tokyo's Narita International Airport on Tuesday as he tried to go to the Philippines, an airport official said on condition of anonymity. Miyoko Watai, a Japan Chess Association official who described herself as a longtime friend of Fischer's, said the eccentric chess prodigy discovered when he was detained that the United States had revoked his passport.
Fischer became a Cold War hero in 1972 when he defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union to become the first American world chess champion. But the chess prodigy, long know for his eccentric ways, stunned the chess world by refusing to play again, and had slipped mysteriously in and out of public view in the years since. He forfeited the title in 1975, and resurfaced for a dramatic rematch against Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992, beating him 10-5 to win $3.35 million. U.S. authorities accused him of violating U.N. sanctions imposed against Yugoslavia for provoking warfare in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina. In radio interviews, Fischer praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be "wiped out," and described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards." His mother was Jewish. |