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Chess icon's body exhumed in paternity case

By the CNN Wire Staff
Bobby Fischer talks to reporters in Japan in this photo taken in 2005.
Bobby Fischer talks to reporters in Japan in this photo taken in 2005.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Fischer's alleged daughter, Jinky Young, requested a DNA test
  • His body was exhumed just long enough to take a DNA sample
  • A doctor and a priest were among those present
  • Fischer died in Iceland in 2008

(CNN) -- The body of chess legend Bobby Fischer was exhumed Monday in Iceland, law enforcement officials have told CNN. His body was reburied shortly after DNA samples were taken, the officials said.

Iceland's supreme court ruled last month in favor of a request by Jinky Young, Fischer's alleged daughter, to exhume his remains in order to settle a paternity question.

Police in the Icelandic town of Selfoss, where Fischer is buried, say the alleged daughter is 9 years old.

A doctor, a priest and other officials were present during the procedure, according to the police department in Selfoss.

Fischer was 64 when he died in January 2008.

A child prodigy and chess master by the time he was 15, Fischer achieved international fame in 1972 when he defeated chess grandmaster Boris Spassky of Russia during the height of the Cold War, becoming the world champion.

The tournament was considered a symbolic battle between the two greatest powers in the world. It was held in Iceland, midway between the United States and the Soviet Union. Soviet chess masters had held the title since World War II -- until Fischer won. The victory, unequaled by an American since, was followed by tens of millions of chess fans around the world.

Video: Fischer's body exhumed in heir claim
RELATED TOPICS
  • Bobby Fischer
  • Chess
  • Iceland

But Fischer's genius proved eccentric. Years after his historic win, Fischer gave up the title in 1975 and refused to defend it. He vanished and lived in a self-imposed exile for decades. He resurfaced in Yugoslavia in 1992 for a rematch against Spassky. It was another victory for Fischer, one that earned him $3.5 million.

The U.S. government claimed Fischer's participation had violated U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia, imposed to punish Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic, and revoked his U.S. passport.

Fischer again disappeared.

He was not heard from again until 2004, when he was arrested in Japan for traveling on an expired passport. When Iceland granted Fischer citizenship in 2005, he moved to that country and lived there until his death in a hospital.