No relief for chess legend Fischer
TOKYO, Japan -- A Japanese court has dismissed a request to halt deportation proceedings against fugitive chess legend Bobby Fischer, his lawyers say.
Fischer, 61, is wanted in the United States for allegedly violating international sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a 1992 chess match there with old rival Boris Spassky.
Fischer was detained in Japan last month when trying to travel on an invalid American passport, and has been battling a deportation order to the United States.
The Tokyo District Court rejected the request to have Japanese immigration officials halt procedures to deport him, his legal team said in a faxed statement late Friday.
Fischer's lawyers immediately filed an appeal with the Tokyo High Court, calling the decision unjust and unreasonable.
In live remarks from a Japanese detention cell, Fischer told a Manila radio station Friday that the U.S. embassy in Japan had agreed to pay him a visit so that he could renounce his U.S. citizenship, Reuters news agency reported.
"Hopefully, I'll be out of this stinking hole soon," Fischer told DZRH radio station.
Earlier in the week, Fisher announced through his lawyer that he wanted to marry Miyoko Watai, president of Japan's Chess Association.
Watai, in a statement faxed to news organizations Tuesday, said: "Our feelings are genuine and are based on our years of close companionship."
She added that the two had kept the relationship "entirely private, even from our closest friends."
"I am praying every day for Bobby's release so that we can be reunited and be allowed to continue our life together here in Japan, quietly and normally as man and woman as we have been for the past four years."
The two met in 1973 when Fischer visited Japan. Fischer has spent most of his time since 2000 living with Watai in Japan, the 59-year-old four-time women's chess champion said.
Marrying a Japanese citizen would not have any legal effect on the deportation order, but supporters hope the engagement will win him some sympathy with the Justice Ministry, Fischer adviser John Bosnitch told The Associated Press.
Fischer, who became known for expressing extremist political viewpoints and anti-Semitic sentiments, has also filed for refugee status and tried to renounce his U.S. citizenship to avoid being shipped back to America.
Fischer's lawyer, Masako Suzuki, said she had also faxed a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and the U.S. Embassy in Japan asking that an American consular officer meet with Fischer to accept his renunciation of citizenship, AP reported.
In the letter, Suzuki accused the embassy of refusing to send an official to Fischer, requiring him to come to the embassy in person. Japanese officials, however, will not allow him to make the trip, she said.
Cold War hero
Fischer has complained of rough treatment during his detention at Narita airport, and earlier in the month said he has not seen the sun or been allowed to exercise since he was detained.
He has now been moved to a larger facility some 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Tokyo, according to Reuters reports.
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.
But he re-emerged in 1992 to play a highly publicized match against Spassky in the former 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.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
