Rebel Fischer finished with ‘corrupt’ chess world
The flawed chess genius Fischer said he was happy to be in Iceland, which granted him citizenship to pave the way for his release from detention in Japan, where he was held on a US extradition warrant.
In a rambling news conference at his Reykjavik hotel, the combative Fischer sparred with US journalists who asked about his anti-American tirades.
“The US is evil. They talk about the axis of evil. What about the allies of evil...the US, England, Japan, Australia? These are the evildoers,” Fischer said.
He thanked his “wonderful friends” in Iceland but said the country’s enthusiasm for chess “was misplaced, because people don’t know how utterly corrupt it is, and has been for many years.” Declaring that he was “finished” with chess, Fischer added: “I don’t play the old chess. But obviously if I did, I would be the best.”
Fischer, who let his hair and beard grow to impressive lengths during his detention, had been neatly barbered before the news conference, though he was still wearing a baseball cap as he had done on the flight to Reykjavik.
Fischer was freed on Thursday after nine months’ detention in Japan, where he had been held for trying to leave the country using an invalid US passport. Japan agreed to release him after he accepted Iceland’s offer of citizenship.
Fischer, wanted by the US for breaking sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia by playing an exhibition match against Boris Spassky there in 1992, had fought deportation since he was detained by Japanese officials last July.
If convicted of breaking US sanctions imposed to punish then-President Slobodan Milosevic, Fischer could face 10 years’ jail and a €200,000 fine.
