AStatesman Journal, Salem, Oregon, Friday, December 17, 2004 - Page 8
Former chess star Fischer offered asylum in Iceland
Tokyo—Iceland has agreed to offer asylum to Bobby Fischer, the former chess champion who is being held in a Japanese jail while fighting extradition to the United States, said Iceland's Ambassador to Japan, Thordur Okarsson, in an interview Thursday.
The offer might help the New York City native avoid returning to the United States, where he is wanted for violating international sanctions in 1992 for playing a chess match in Yugoslavia. Fischer, 61, was arrested in July while trying to board a plane to Manila at Tokyo's Narita International Airport. He claims that the charges against him are politically motivated and connected to his anti-American statements — including a remark on a Philippine radio station hailing the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
Fischer has tried a number of tactics to avoid extradition, including an attempt to marry the acting leader of the Japanese chess association.
Fischer's advocates in Japan are hoping the offer from Iceland, the site of his historical defeat of Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in 1972, might resolve his status.
