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Former chess champion Fischer leaves Japan for Iceland
Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer flew out of Japan, where he had been detained since July, en route to Iceland after Tokyo decided not to deport him to the United States where he faces prison, an airport official said.
Fischer, looking haggard with a bushy white beard, took a Scandinavian Airlines flight which left Narita airport near Tokyo a 1:02 pm (0402 GMT) for Copenhagen, from where he plans to take a connecting flight to Iceland.
But he soon ran afoul of US authorities with his angry anti-American and anti-Jewish views. He faces 10 years in prison for playing a rematch against Spassky in 1992 in Yugoslavia in defiance of US sanctions imposed over the Balkan wars.
He was released earlier from a Japanese immigration lock-up after being detained at Narita airport on July 13 for allegedly trying to use an invalid US passport to fly to the Philippines.
Miyoko Watai, the head of the Japan Chess Association who became engaged to Fischer while he was detained, said she hoped to move to Iceland with Fischer.
"I am truly happy. It is like a dream. I hope he will be able to go to Iceland without any more problems," she said.
"He did not do anything wrong. I am enraged at the whole situation."
Fischer was spared deportation after he was made a citizen of Iceland, where he is famous for the 1972 match in which the then 29-year-old American dethroned the Spassky in a sport long dominated by Russians. |
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