Archivado en: internacional | escrito por goleech | 03/25/2005 | 23:05

¿El genio del ajedrez? O ¿el eccéntrico, paranoíco y antisemita ex ícono estadounidense?. La historia de Bobby Fischer es única, grandiosa, polémica y rara, muy rara. Para aquellos que no vivimos la época "dorada" de Fischer en los 70's, y su regreso en 1992, nos resulta un tipo loco y bocón dando un vistazo a las noticias.

Luego de haber derrotado en 1992, de nueva cuenta, a Boris Spassky en Yugoslavia, el gobierno de Estados Unidos lo acusó de violar una orden presidencial basada en una sanción de las Naciones Unidas. Desde entonces Fischer era buscado por la justicia estadounidense, y fue hasta julio del año pasado cuando fue detenido en Japón.

Fischer permaneció "secuestrado" en Japón hasta hace unas horas tras ser liberado y acogido por Islandia. Como una muestra de agradecimiento el gobierno de Islandia le otorgó la ciudadanía por "haberlos puesto en el mapa".

Una historia muy completa de la rara vida de Bobby Fischer se pueda encontrar en Wikipedia, aquí algunos fragmentos:

Fischer's ascent to the top of the chess world was a dramatic one. He won the U.S. Junior Championship at the age of 13, and by 1958 he had became U.S. Champion and grandmaster. In 1972 he challenged Boris Spassky for the world championship in what was billed as the world championship match in Reykjavík, Iceland. Fischer became the first American world champion. His victory created a nationwide sensation about chess.

... On July 13, 2004, Fischer was detained at Narita International Airport in Narita, Japan near Tokyo for allegedly using a revoked U.S. passport while trying to board a Japan Airlines flight to Ninoy Aquino International Airport near Manila, Philippines. Fischer used a genuine passport that the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland issued to him in 1997, but which was revoked in 2003. It has been reported that Fischer traveled frequently between Tokyo and Manila using his U.S. passport.

He has been wanted by the United States government since 1992 when his match with Spassky in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia violated the presidential executive order #12810 of George H. W. Bush based on UN sanctions against engaging in economic activities in Yugoslavia. Japan and the United States currently maintain a mutually binding extradition treaty.

... In early January 2005, Fischer wrote a letter to the government of Iceland asking for Icelandic citizenship. However, as of January 19, 2005, the U.S. government continues to push for his deportation to his homeland for trial.

On March 7, 2005, Fischer was granted an Icelandic passport, but the U.S. government filed charges of tax evasion against him in an effort to prevent him from traveling to Iceland. On March 18, Bjarni Benediktsson of Iceland's parliament announced that the parliamentary committee considering Fischer's case has recommended that Fischer be granted Icelandic citizenship. On March 21, the parliament agreed unanimously and without discussion to grant citizenship to Fischer. On March 24, Fischer arrived in Iceland.

Respecto a las eccentricidades y posturas políticas antisemitas de Bobby Fischer:

In 1984, Fischer wrote to the editors of the Encyclopaedia Judaica asking for his name to be removed from the publication because he is not Jewish. However, by Jewish Law standards he would be considered Jewish since his mother was Jewish. In recent years he has given interviews with Pablo Mercado and Grandmaster Eugenio Torre on the Philippine radio station Radio Bombo in which he has confirmed his fanatical anti-Semitism - among other things, he has spoken of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy, and has denied the Holocaust happened. He also used the interviews to complain about products such as the computer program Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess using his name without permission

Wikipedia

Until Fischer was detained in July last year while trying to leave Japan with a revoked US passport, his whereabouts had often been a mystery.

His reclusiveness, his anti-Semitic diatribes in radio interviews and - most unforgiveably for his fellow countrymen - his support for the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US all tarnished his legend.

"This is all wonderful news. It is time to finish off the US once and for all," he told a radio station in the Philippines after learning of the attacks.

BBC News

A su llegada a Islandia, Fischer se bajó con la espada desenvainada y arremetió en contra del gobierno japonés, además de exhibir su antisemitismo:

"The Japanese government are unbelievable hypocrites," he said. "I was watching TV and listening to the radio while in detention in Tokyo, and they are bellyaching endlessly about how the North Koreans kidnapped some people 15 to 20 years ago. Yet they had just kidnapped me! They're monstrous hypocrites."

In Tokyo several hours earlier the scene had been much the same. "I won't be free until I get out of Japan," he told reporters at Narita airport. "It wasn't an arrest, it was a kidnapping cooked up between Bush and [Japanese prime minister, Junichiro] Koizumi. They are war criminals. They should both be hung. I'm very happy to be leaving. Japan is a nice country, but you have a criminal leadership."

He called Japan's ruling party "gangsters," and in one of his trademark anti-semitic outbursts, said the "Jew-controlled" US was responsible for hounding him.

The Guardian

* Bobby Fischer en Wikipedia
* 'I was kidnapped,' says chess genius as he rails against Japan and US (The Guardian)
* Bobby Fischer: Demise of a chess legend (BBC News)
* Bobby Fischer, citizen of Iceland, freed by Japan to fly to new home (The Independent)

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