Bobby Fischer Found 1379
paulydavis writes "Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, wanted since 1992 for playing a tournament in Yugoslavia despite U.N. sanctions, was detained in Japan for an apparent passport violation and will be deported to the United States."
A Better Article (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Busting him for violating sanctions (Score:5, Informative)
Fischer's always been a nutcase, even back when he was World Champion. Read a decent book on the history of chess (or one specific to him), there are (true) stories about Fischer that you just wouldn't believe. Little things like making the tournament organizers get a chessboard 3 millimeters larger. Flying his favorite chair to the match (in Iceland, no less). Giving up his freakin' World Championship because his insane terms didn't get met.
Basically what I'm saying is, yes Fischer is crazy, but this not new.
Re:But what about Paul Simon? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Busting him for violating sanctions (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Really (Score:2, Informative)
great article on Fischer (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why does this mean so much? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:yugoslavia neighbour of bosnia? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I can't sympathize (Score:5, Informative)
What you never hear in regards to Clinton's famous court appearance is that before 'lying under oath' he asked the judge to define 'sexual relations'. The judge defined it as intercourse. Only after that did Clinton claim he did not have sexual relations.
Now, I will not argue that he was being dishonest. I will not argue that he was being weasely. But lying under oath? If you can't go by the judge's definition of a term then what can you go by?
Sanction info (Score:5, Informative)
I dug up some information [chess-poster.com]:
On September 1, 1992, Bobby Fischer came out of his 20 year retirement and gave a press conference in Yugoslavia. He pulled out an order from the U.S. Treasury Department warning him that he would be violating U.N sanctions if he played Chess in Yugoslavia. He spit on the order and now faces ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he returns to the U.S. In addition, he must forfeit his $3.65 million to the U.S. Treasury and forfeit 10% of any match royalties earned. On September 30, Bobby Fischer began his rematch with Boris Spassky in Sveti Stefan, Yugoslavia. The match was organized by banker Jedzimir Vasiljevic. On November 11, Fischer won the match with 10 wins, 5 losses, and 15 draws. He received $3.65 million for his winnings and Spassky received $1.5 million.
And I found the letter [ishipress.com] from the Senate that explains the basis for the sanction:
Department of the Treasury
Washington
Aug 21, 1992
Order to Provide Information and Cease and Desist Activities
FAC No. 129405
Dear Mr Fischer:
It has come to our attention that you are planning to play a chess match for a cash prize in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) (hereinafter "Yugoslavia") against Boris Spassky on or about September 1, 1992. As a U.S. citizen, you are subject to the prohibitions under Executive Order 12810, dated June 5, 1992, imposing sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro. The United States Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control ("FAC"), is charged with enforcement of the Executive Order.
The Executive Order prohibits U.S. persons from performing any contract in support of a commercial project in Yugoslavia, as well as from exporting services to Yugoslavia. The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the performance of your agreement with a corporate sponsor in Yugoslavia to play chess is deemed to be in support of that sponsor's commercial activity. Any transactions engaged in for this purpose are outside the scope of General License No. 6, which authorizes only transactions to travel, not to business or commercial activities. In addition, we consider your presence in Yugoslavia for this purpose to be an exportation of services to Yugoslavia in the sense that the Yugoslav sponsor is benefitting from the use of your name and reputation.
Violations of the Executive Order are punishable by civil penalties not to exceed $10,000 per violation, and by criminal penalties not to exceed $250,000 per individual, 10 years in prison, or both. You are hereby directed to refrain from engaging in any of the activities described above. You are further requested to file a report with this office with 10 business days of your receipt of this letter, outlining the facts and circumstances surrounding any and all transactions relating to your scheduled chess match in Yugoslavia against Boris Spassky. The report should be addressed to: The U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Enforcement Division, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Annex - 2nd floor, Washington D.C. 20220. If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact Merete M. Evans at (202) 622-2430.
Sincerely, (signed)
R. Richard Newcomb
Director
Office of Foreign Assets Control
- David Stein
Re:Thank God!! (Score:3, Informative)
The US spent resources over several years looking for him. They will continue to spend resources in bringing him to the US, providing a fair trial (which will be next to impossible given his statements in the past) and housing and feeding him for the next x years while he sits in prison.
Is he a true criminal? No. The only thing he has actually done that is illegal is play chess in a "bad" (as defined by the US Government) country. His views on terrorism and the attacks suffered by the US (as previously explained) are, unfortunately, shared by people who are still given time on TV, in newspapers and other media outlets. Freedom of speech is a basic right in this country.
IMHO, the US should not bother bringing this guy back to the states and prosecuting him. They should revoke his citzenship and ban him from the US. "If you don't like it here, don't come back!" There is nothing to gain and everything to lose in giving this man a trial.
Re:Open mouth, insert paranoid foot (Score:3, Informative)
His mother was Jewish.
That would also make him Jewish.
Re:Great Movie (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Jesus! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:am I reading this straight? (Score:3, Informative)
the match had a multimillion-dollar purse. fischer walked off with several million dollars from the win. that's why it was considered a violation of the "economic" boycott instituted by the US at the time. his opponent, boris spassky, lived in france, and so had no issues.
also, to get there (because the US would not issue him a visa), fischer flew somewhere else (i forget where) and then bought another ticket into the match site. he was warned before he left, both privately and publicly, that the gov't would arrest him if he went there and then came back to the US.
evidently, he's fallen on hard times. the last i heard, he was living in hungary with his girlfriend. i can't imagine what would take him to japan.
mp
Re:That's interesting.... (Score:2, Informative)
You are mistaken. I did not intend to bash Bush. I don't care for him but I don't hate him. I'm just bashing how screwed up the UN's sence of justice is. UN law states that waging an agressive war against the consent of the UN is punishable by being put on trial at the Haige (excuse my spelling). In other words, you will be punished as a war criminal. George W. Bush Jr. did exactly that. I'm not sayiny that Bobby Fischer is a saint either. After all, he went against the UN will by playing a chess in Yugoslavia. So in summary, which is the greater evil, a chess player or a war criminal? I was just trying to point out the irony of how the UN is supposed to prevent wars from happening by punishing those who do cause agressive wars but instead put more effort into punishing someone who was merely playing chess.
Re:Changed the view of the US? (Score:2, Informative)
Not necessarily, debt can be used wisely. For example, a mortgage can be a very good thing as long as a person intelligently shops for a home and a good mortgage and doesn't buy beyond their means, plus most people can deduct a portion of the interest (on homes) in the US. The same is true of college loans, it provides the resources to go to college for many and the interest may be deductible.
Re:Changed the view of the US? (Score:2, Informative)
Buffett slams dividend tax cut
One of world's richest calls plan 'voodoo economics,' says it puts burden on low-income families.
Quotes: "The 3 percent overall federal tax rate I would pay -- if a Berkshire dividend were to be tax free -- seems a bit light," Buffett wrote.
"Putting $1,000 in the pockets of 310,000 families with urgent needs is going to provide far more stimulus to the economy than putting the same $310 million in my pockets," Buffett added.
CNN [cnn.com]
...which proves the old saying (Score:5, Informative)
Fischer is definitely paranoid. For example, he said he believes that all of today's chess matches are rigged (the players have agreed on the sequence of moves beforehand). On a wider scale, he thinks the Jews are after him and his family, that the holocaust did not happen etc.
On the other hand, jailing a person because he played in a chess tournament? Have we all become mad?
Re:Mentally Ill (Score:5, Informative)
Contrary to popular belief, Fischer didn't emerge from the womb a full-blown grand master. While he was learning the game, as a child in Brooklyn, he was essentially a hotshot club player--a prodigy, to be sure, but not obviously world-championship material. But at age thirteen, in 1956, Fischer made a colossal leap. That year he became the youngest player ever to win the U.S. Junior Championship. He also dominated the U.S. tournament circuit. What was astounding wasn't simply that a gawky thirteen-year-old kid in blue jeans was suddenly winning chess tournaments. It was the way he was winning. He didn't just beat people--he humiliated them.
Maybe the onset of puberty "turned on" his mental illness. This [healthieryou.com] article and others [nih.gov] seem to suggest that puberty can trigger an underlying mental condition. In fact, this article [healthyplace.com] says:
Social phobia is the irrational fear and avoidance of being in a situation in which a person's activities can be watched by others. In a sense, it is a form of "performance anxiety," but a social phobia causes symptomsthat go well beyond the normal nervousness before an on-stage appearance. People suffering social phobias intensely fear being watched or humiliated while doing something--such as signing a personal check, drinking a cup of coffee, buttoning a coat or eating a meal--in front of others. Many patients suffer a generalized form of social phobia, in which they fear and avoid most interactions with other people. This makes it difficult for them to go to work or school, or to socialize at all. Social phobias occur equally among men and women, generally developing after puberty and peaking after age 30. A person can suffer from one or a cluster of social phobias.
Sounds like Mr. Fischer to me!
Re:Statute of Limitations? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What does it take.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Changed the view of the US? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Jesus! (Score:4, Informative)
A lot of people believe this, probably due to the popularity of the movie Rain Man, but the fact is that so-called "idiot savants" are fairly rare among autistics. Most autistics do not have exceptional mathematic abilities.
Re:whose freedom did he remove? (Score:2, Informative)
Number of U.S. executions Value
Year 1999 98
Year 2000 85
Year 2001 66
Year 2002 71
Average per year since 1976 29
Total executions since 1976 820http://www.religioustolerance.org/executd.htm
Correct. Further... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Jesus! (Score:5, Informative)
I have a nephew who is autistic. Autism is an overwhelming syndrome that generally restricts the person who has it to only the most basic level of communication. More likely Fischer has symptoms of Asperger's syndrome.
With Asperger's syndrom a person will often be quite intelligent but have some difficulty communicating verbally. They can speak, but they come off as being very shy. They tend to be focused on patterns and sequences (quite a talent to have for a chess player). They also tend to "self stimulate" by self hugging and/or rocking back and forth.
All these symptom also appear in autistic children but with autism the ability to speak and communicate normally is quite often lost. They sometimes also tend not to bond with people. I know there was a time when my nephew didn't seem to understand that he had to relate to the people in his family differently than he relates to a chair. Also, autism tends to strike male children at about 18 months to 2 years old. It's not a syndrome that get worse as you get older. You have it or you don't.
Fisher can obviously speak well. His thoughts may be delusional, but he doesn't have the speech issues or physical movement issues normally associated with autism.
Fischer's opinion on Judaism (Score:3, Informative)
A letter he wrote to a Jewish encylopaedia that said he was a Jew [att.ne.jp]
Re:Jesus! (Score:5, Informative)
An innocent play? There were economic sanctions against Yugoslavia for the civil war and genocide in Bosnia(*) that was supported by the Yugoslavs. Fischer netted $3.5 million for what amounted to a propaganda operation. He was convicted by a US jury, and I can see why.
(*: I'm not 100% sure if it was exactly that part of the war, or another conflict at the time)
Re:Jesus! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Changed the view of the US? (Score:1, Informative)
Funny how hypocryt people are (Score:3, Informative)
Sanction like this have been used before against south-africa. Put the country into total isolation and hope that this will become to big a burden to bear.
Does it work? Well it doesn't for cuba and north-korea (wether it is right or not is another discussion) but it worked in South-Africa.
But if a sanction is going to work it got to be complete. It is sorta like any law. You can have a speeding law but let person X speed because going after just one guy isn't "nice".
There was an embargo, he broke it, he goes to jail. That is was "merely" a chess game is exactly the point. This was a cultural embargo. The entire point of it is to make it very clear to the people inside the embargo that they are no longer welcome in the world unless they learn to behave.
There are just three choices to deal with countries that are "misbehaving", ignore/santion/war. All of them been tried and all failed and succeeded. If you can come up with a better one be sure to tell the world. But at least be consistent. You don't want embargo/santions and don't want war. Then don't whine ever again about something nasty happening to population X by population Y.
Doesn't help this guys case that he is a nutter. There won't be much of a public outcry cause as soon as he opens his mouth people will be on the opposite side. Oh well couldn't have happened to a nicer person.
Re:Arabs are semites. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Jesus! (Score:2, Informative)
There are certainly other people just like him living free in the US spouting just as much insane madness, but they're not being investigated by the feds. If you don't believe me have a walk through downtown USA outside a homeless shelter. Having a contrary opinion is NOT a crime. If it were all of us
Re:Statute of limitations (Score:2, Informative)
SirWired
Re:Changed the view of the US? (Score:3, Informative)
Not to nitpick too much, but this famous game was NOT for the gold medal, it was a semi-final match. The USA squad still had to beat Finland in the final to get the gold.
Not that we Canadians still don't believe that was just a huge cosmic fluke, and all, but....
Not for playing chess but for making money (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Changed the view of the US? (Score:3, Informative)
The "good" thing, in terms of interest to the big pharmaceuticals, is that you don't need to catch cancer. People don't catch cancer from other people, they catch it from other stuff such as dangerous activities (smoking and drinking come to mind) or through their genes.
Unless they're curing people's genetic tendencies to form cancerous cells, the pharmaceuticals have a reason to cure cancer. If someone were gauranteed that their cancer could be cured, don't you think they'd be willing to pay a lot more?
A cure for cancer doesn't mean that cancer goes away, just that people don't die from it.
Re:Sad, but true (Score:4, Informative)
The Cuba sanctions are supported by the most powerful Cuban-American political groups, and by Cuban-American congressmen - like the two Diaz-Balarts (who are Fidel Castro's nephews). That's why Congress hasn't repealed this.
You can call it ethnic discrimination if you like, but it's the ethnicity itself that supports the discrimination.
Re:Changed the view of the US? (Score:3, Informative)