Almighty Colin
07-16-2004, 11:24 AM
TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer has been detained by immigration authorities in Japan.
Fischer, 61, is wanted in the United States for attending a 1992 chess match in Yugoslavia in violation of international sanctions imposed during the Balkan wars.
He was stopped at Tokyo's Narita International Airport on Tuesday in connection with Japanese immigration officials told CNN.
Friday's Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that officials were preparing to deport Fischer to the United States.
The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said it was aware Fischer had been detained but declined to comment further.
Fischer became a chess grandmaster at age 15 and was considered something of a Cold War hero when he outplayed Russian Boris Spassky to win the world title in 1972.
He was world champion until 1975 when he forfeited the title and withdrew from the tournament because conditions he demanded proved unacceptable to the International Chess Federation.
Since then, he virtually disappeared, living in secret outside the United States and dodging authorities.
He has become known for expressing extremist political viewpoints and anti-Semitic sentiments.
However he emerged in 1992 to play Spassky in a highly publicized match in Yugoslavia.
Fischer won that competition 10-5 and pocketed a prize of $3.35 million.
But the U.S. government accused him of violating U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia by playing the match there.
Those sanctions were in place for provoking warfare in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Fischer, 61, is wanted in the United States for attending a 1992 chess match in Yugoslavia in violation of international sanctions imposed during the Balkan wars.
He was stopped at Tokyo's Narita International Airport on Tuesday in connection with Japanese immigration officials told CNN.
Friday's Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that officials were preparing to deport Fischer to the United States.
The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said it was aware Fischer had been detained but declined to comment further.
Fischer became a chess grandmaster at age 15 and was considered something of a Cold War hero when he outplayed Russian Boris Spassky to win the world title in 1972.
He was world champion until 1975 when he forfeited the title and withdrew from the tournament because conditions he demanded proved unacceptable to the International Chess Federation.
Since then, he virtually disappeared, living in secret outside the United States and dodging authorities.
He has become known for expressing extremist political viewpoints and anti-Semitic sentiments.
However he emerged in 1992 to play Spassky in a highly publicized match in Yugoslavia.
Fischer won that competition 10-5 and pocketed a prize of $3.35 million.
But the U.S. government accused him of violating U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia by playing the match there.
Those sanctions were in place for provoking warfare in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina.