Chess genius Fischer fights deportation to US

Chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer plans to appeal against a deportation order to the United States next week for the second time and to apply for temporary freedom from a detention centre in Japan, an adviser said today.

Fischer appeared to be trying to buy more time to avoid possible US prosecution.

The American chess player, wanted by US authorities for playing a 1992 match in the former Yugoslavia in violation of international sanctions, was granted a three-day extension yesterday – hours before a midnight deadline – to appeal against Japan’s decision to deport him for travelling with a revoked US passport.

In the United States he’d face up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 (€208,000), officials say.

Fischer has hired a lawyer to appeal to Japan’s justice minister before the new deadline expires on Monday, said John Bosnitch, a Tokyo-based communications consultant advising Fischer.

The minister’s decision “can take months or it can take days”, Bosnitch said.

The former world chess champion, held by Japanese immigration authorities at an airport detention centre for two weeks, will also ask to be temporarily freed while his case is pending, Bosnitch said.

That request, Fisher’s second, will include a complaint that he is being kept near smokers and without sunlight or fresh air, Bosnitch said. His first such request was rejected yesterday.

“He’s not a flight risk. He has no passport. He has no country to go,” said Bosnitch, who visited Fischer yesterday. “We will continue to apply for his provisional release at every opportunity … until he is released.”

Since his detention, supporters of Fischer – whose father was German – have assembled paperwork for him to try getting a German passport, and have sought political asylum for him in a third country.

He can seek a court injunction to stop the immigration proceedings, which he claims are illegal.

His chances of winning aren’t clear, but he’s so far foiled US attempts to take him into custody. And with the process likely to take weeks or months, his supporters have time to consider their options.

He was caught at Tokyo’s Narita airport on July 13 trying to board a plane for the Philippines with a passport that had been revoked by the United States.

Tokyo had prepared to deport him, but Fischer appealed, claiming his passport was revoked in November without due process, and was therefore still valid.

That appeal was rejected last Tuesday, but he can still appeal directly to Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa.

Supporters say Fischer is being held as a “political prisoner” for views which were critical of the US and which he expressed in the Philippines after the September 11, 2001, suicide attacks in the United States.

He became a chess legend when, at the height of the Cold War, he defeated the former Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1972 to claim the world championship.

Known for erratic behaviour at matches, he became a recluse for years until he resurfaced for the fateful match against Spassky in Yugoslavia.

Fischer won and took home more than $3m (€2.5m) in prize money, but he played in violation of UN sanctions and has since been wanted in the United States.