Bobby Fischer, the brilliant but reclusive chess champion, was detained at Tokyo's Narita Airport while trying to go to the Philippines. There is talk of extraditing Fischer back to the U.S., because Fischer has been wanted ever since playing a game in Yugoslavia when sports games were sanctioned. A chess player, a wanted criminal, just for playing a game. Yes, sanctions, but it seems small potatoes now. The twist is that Fischer's possible extradition is tied into another fascinating case, about the U.S. trying to extradite a now 64 year-old U.S. army deserter Charles Jenkins who defected to North Korea. (The Jenkins story has it all - his wife was kidnapped, they finally reunited in Indonesia where Jenkins was found, international intrigue and political tangling, young children caught in the middle, illness.) Fischer is also an alum of Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, like Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond; it was recently reported that Erasmus is being re-aligned to house smaller high schools.
Gothamist is very fond of the film, Searching for Bobby Fischer. Although there is no Bobby Fischer in it, it does have an interesting look at the chess games in Washington Square Park. For more Bobby Fischer, read Rene Chun's 2002 Atlantic article, Bobby Fischer's Pathetic Endgame. One person doesn't think Fischer's playing was in violation of anything, but adds that Fischer's criminally charges were ordered by "Executive Order" from President Bush (41).
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Actually, Barbara Streisand went to Midwood with my mother
That story about Jenkins is incredible. If he's smart he'll just wait another year until the 40-year statute of limitations runs out on the crime of desertion. The story does say that he's only 64, however, not 81.
I love "Searching for Bobby Fischer." My favorite thing to do is watch it in conjunction with "Fresh." It's also about a young kid who plays chess at Washington Square Park (only with Samuel L. Jackson playing the Lawrence Fishburne role), but this kid is black and has to sell drugs and battle drug dealers and the cops in Brooklyn. One goes to chess tournaments with his best friend, the other has to watch his get killed.
But what about this part:
"He is a pathologically perverted anti-Semite"
Dude is nuts.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/16/world/main630102.shtml
"He praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be 'wiped out,' and described Jews as 'thieving, lying bastards.' His mother was Jewish."
Where's the love, Bobbo?
Love chess, loved Booby Fisher, but he turned into one of thoes freaks that claim the Holocost never happened.
His story really is a bizarre one. I mean, who would believe a movie script about a genius chess-player turned fugitive crackpot? Throw in an abducted child and I think we've got a Lifetime movie here.
As a former nerdy tournament-playing chess player who knew a lot of the real-life people in Searching for Bobby Fischer, I like to follow any chess-related story, so thanks for posting this. I think it's sad that his craziness has kindof outweighed his chess prowess, or at least become half the story (though necessarily so with some of his views). I certainly did not realize that chess was so political!
On another note, Chess-in-the-Schools is a great organization that teaches inner-city K-8 kids chess.
Thanks for pointing that out, Dave - I was getting it confused with another story: It was, I think, a Korean man who had a sweetheart, but he was sent to Russian Siberia (maybe during the war) and he settled there, marrying a Russian woman, and raising a family quite happily. Then, today, at age 70- or 80-something, he went back to Korea, found out that his sweetheart was still alive, but very ill. So the man asked his Russian wife for a divorce so he could be with his old sweetheart.
And yes, Fischer is a crazy crazy man. Was he driven to the brink by being a Cold War pawn? Pun semi-unintended.
Dude, Fischer is one nutjob!
I'm wondering how this could be made into a Law & Order episode...
Um, no porno movie freedom with this administration - see the Extreme Associates case being prosecued by Mary Beth Buchanan, and anything John Ashcroft has done relating to porn/obscenity.
Jen, that story's about the same as Lev Theremin's, who invented the Theremin electronic music device in the 1920s. He was kidnapped in NYC by Soviet agents who took him back to the country he emigrated from years earlier and forced him to do surveillance work when they didn't have him exiled to a gulag. All his family and friends thought he was dead until 60 years later when a documentary film maker found him and brought him back to New York for a reunion with his former female protege. Although he was married to someone else 60 years earlier, it was assumed that she and Theremin were in love with each other. You have to love long-lost reunions.
from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/16/international/asia/16CND-FISC.html
"The moody American has been known over the years for his extreme rudeness. He is outspoken in his loathing of Communists, reporters, Jews and women. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, "Death to the U.S.A" became his invariable greeting."
"Small potatoes" for plopping himself in the middle of the racial cleansing campaigns to play a game of chess that generated money and, arguably, international prestige for the perpetrators? I don't think so, and, yes, I happen to think somewhat less of Spassky for having taken part in the event as well. Going to that match was comparable--no, worse--to playing Sun City when South Africa was ruled by apartheid. Setting aside the executive order from the first President Bush, which your source has misled you on--it's about the crime Fischer committed, but not about Fischer--it was the wrong thing to do, plain and simple.
Okay he's a genius, a crackpot and an anti-semite. Can anyone explain why the picture accompanying this article makes him appear to be wearing a yarmulke?
Do I have bad eyesight or am I spinning my own conspiracy theory?
Fry them both. Hahaha.
As punishment he should be forced to play agains Gary Kasparov. That would be cool.
after Bobby fischer beat the russian by himself he was not even invited to the White house...the man has obviously big mental problems but his being antisemite should not be the only criteria used to judge him (i know it is not politically correct to say this in the USA)....anyway He got me(along with other thousandS of people) into chess in 1972 and for that I will always be thankfull to him...
after Bobby fischer beat the russian by himself he was not even invited to the White house...the man has obviously big mental problems but his being antisemite should not be the only criteria used to judge him (i know it is not politically correct to say this in the USA)....anyway He got me(along with other thousandS of people) into chess in 1972 and for that I will always be thankfull to him...
i posted a comment,it was taken away,obviously not to the liking of gothamist?
obviously the guy is mentally ill,but that doesn't seem to matter for the u.s.a. to take him to court,the u.s.a. does not care at all about human rights,only when it suits them....