By: John A. Yowan
Age 49 to Present Day
In early 1992 Fischer started a relationship with 18-year old Zita Rajcsansyi of Hungary. She may have persuaded him to play a chess match with Boris Spassky. Plans were being made to have Spassky play a re-match with Fischer in Yugoslavia.
Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer is seen during a 1992 match against his archrival, the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky, in the Yugoslav resort of Sveti Stefan.
On August 21, 1992 the Department of the Treasury ordered Bobby Fischer to stop his activities in the planning of a chess match in Yugoslavia. He was subject to the prohibitions under Executive Order 12810, signed by George Bush on June 5, 1992 (rescinded in 2003), imposing sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro.
On September 1, 1992, Bobby Fischer came out of his 20-year retirement and gave a press conference in Yugoslavia. He pulled out an order from the U.S. Treasury Department warning him that he would be violating U.N. sanctions if he played chess in Yugoslavia.
http://hano53433838.web.infoseek.co.jp/list/p_05/5_0.htm.
He spit on the order and now faces “10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he returns to the U.S.” In addition, “he must forfeit his $3.65 million to the U.S. Treasury and forfeit 10% of any match royalties earned.”
On September 30, Bobby Fischer began his re-match with Boris Spassky (ranked 99 in the world) in Sveti Stefan (Montenagro), Yugoslavia. Banker Jedzimir Vasiljevic organized the match. On November 11, Fischer won the match with 10 wins, 5 losses, and 15 draws. He received $3.65 million for his winnings and Spassky received $1.5 million. The match used the new Bobby Fischer chess clock. Fischer's 2nd during the match was Eugene Torre of the Philippines.
On December 15, 1992 the State Department indicted Bobby Fischer for violating Title 50, US Code 1701, 1702, and 1705 and Executive Order 12810 (Prohibiting Transaction with Yugoslavia), signed by President George Bush on June 2, 1992. The crime was performing a contract in support of a commercial project in a banned country (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). He was ordered to be arrested by any U.S. Marshall or any authorized agent for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
On January 24, 1997 Fischer was issued a U.S. Passport (#27792702) at the American Embassy at Bern, Switzerland. The passport should have been valid until 2007.
On July 27, 1997 Bobby Fischer's mother died in Palo Alto, California. She was 84.
In 1998 all of Bobby Fischer's valuables and belongings kept at the Bekins Moving and Storage Company in Pasadena, California were sold when Bob Ellsworth of Pasadena, who was supposed to pay his bills, did not pay the storage bill.
On May 24, 1999, in Baguio, Fischer said: "America is totally under control of the Jews... The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense are dirty Jews."
Fischer was living in Budapest in the 1990s. He has been frequented by the Polgar family and Grandmaster Peter Leko.
In 2000 Fischer traveled to the Philippines and stayed with Philippine Grandmaster Eugene Torre. Fischer may have married his girlfriend, Justine Ong. She was 22 years old and a Chinese-Filipino. They have one daughter, Jinky Ong Fischer, born in 2000 in Manila. Later that year, Fischer traveled to Japan and was living with Miyoko Watai, President of the Japanese Chess Association and former Japanese women's chess champion.
In 2001 Grandmaster Nigel Short was convinced that Bobby Fischer was playing chess on the Internet. An unknown player easily defeated Short, one of the world's strongest chess grandmasters, in an 8-game match. The unknown player answered all of Short's questions about chess in the 1960s and knew all the answers to several Bobby Fischer trivia questions (who did Fischer play in round 3 of the 1967 Sousse interzonal, how many moves, and what was the opening). Others speculate that the player was using a computer, but others have analyzed the moves and the time between moves to show that it was a human playing.
On January 27, 2002 Fischer did a radio interview from Reykjavik, Iceland. He encouraged the Icelandic government to close the local U.S. naval base. He then said, "If they refuse to go, send them some letters with anthrax. They'll get the message."
On April 15, 2004 Bobby Fischer flew to Japan. He cleared Japanese immigration at the time.
On July 13, 2004 at about 5:30 pm, the Japanese immigration authorities at Narita International Airport in Tokyo arrested Bobby Fischer during a rough struggle. Fischer was headed to Manila, Philippines at the time on a Japan Airlines flight (JL 745) Fischer was told that he would be deported to the United States to face charges. If Fischer would have been sent back to the U.S. he could go to prison for up to10 years and pay a $250,000 fine for violating the “Trading with the Enemy Act” and income tax evasion.
After two weeks of incarceration, he agreed to hire a lawyer (Masako Suzuki and Takeshi O'Hashi) to appeal the Japanese government's decision to deport him. He has been telling Japanese authorities that he is a German citizen, invoking his lineage to a German-born father (Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, born in Berlin in 1908).
On August 10, 2003, Fischer was transferred from Narita airport (east of Tokyo) to Ushiku, an hour north of Tokyo.
On August 16, 2004, Bobby Fischer appealed to US Secretary of State Colin Powell to help him renounce US citizenship.
http://hano53433838.web.infoseek.co.jp/list/p_64/64_0.htm
Fischer's attempt to renounce his US citizenship would not enable him to escape the charges he was wanted for in the United States. However it may have been able to affect his status with the Japanese government.
He also announced plans to marry Miyoko Watai, the Japan Chess Association President.
In September 2004, a Japanese court granted an injunction preventing Fischer from being deported until it had ruled on his lawsuit seeking to have the deportation order thrown out.
On February 23, 2005 the Icelandic government decided to issue full travel documents for Bobby Fischer.
The Icelandic Althingi (parliament) received a letter from the Japanese government saying
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If the country would be offering to take in Fischer while recognizing him as one of their own citizens, then the Japanese authorities would of course allow him to go.
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But, in the present case, what the Iceland government is offering is ultimately only a “foreign-citizen use passport”.
On March 21, 2005 at 17:06 the Icelandic Althingi, granted Bobby Fischer full Icelandic citizenship. Despite stern U.S. diplomatic warnings, the parliament voted 40 in favour and two abstentions to make Fischer a full citizen.
Fischer's plane landed at Reykjavik Airport on March 24, 2005 at 21:30 GMT
