Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Japan to free Bobby Fischer, controversial chess champ


Boing Boing reader
John Duffell says,
Bobby Fischer, former world chess champion and a wanted man in the U.S. who's been held by the Japanese government for the past 8 months, will soon be freed. Fischer has been granted Icelandic citizenship, prompting the Japanese to allow for his release to Iceland. He's wanted in the US for breaking international sanctions in 1992 when he played a chess match in Yugoslavia. Fischer also pissed off a lot of people on 9/11, when he went on Philippine radio to commend the 9/11 hijackers for the WTC attacks.

Snip: "The former champion has many supporters in Iceland, after playing a world championship match there in 1972 at the height of the Cold War, beating the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky. 'Mr Fischer is a true Icelander now,' Iceland's ambassador to Japan, Thordur Oskarsson, told Reuters news agency."

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posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:45:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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