Your move, Fischer

Claimants from the far-flung corners of the earth battle for Fischer’s estate.

THE great Bobby Fischer may have died more than two years ago but even from his grave in Iceland, he continues to command a lot of attention.

The latest news to surface is the decision by the Supreme Court in Iceland to have his body exhumed to prove a paternity case.

It seemed that when Fischer died in January 2008, nobody thought of preserving any blood sample for DNA analysis. But then, at that time, nobody expected that he would be at the centre of an inheritance battle.

Yes, there is an on-going court battle for Fischer’s estate. He is said to have left an estate worth about US$2mil (RM6.4mil). This estate is now being claimed by various parties from far-flung reaches of the earth because he died without a will.

One of the parties is Fischer’s two nephews, Alexander and Nicholas Targ, who being the sons of his sister would seem to be the closest living blood relatives of the deceased former world chess champion in the absence of other claimants.

However, there are other claimants to Fischer’s estate. In the last years of his life, even before his sensational detention at Tokyo’s Narita international airport in 2004 for travelling on a revoked American passport, he had developed a close relationship with Miyoko Watai.

Watai herself is a chess player and holds the title of woman international master.

At one time she was the acting president of the Japan Chess Federation.

It is known that Fischer and Watai had been living together in Tokyo.

Even after he had been granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005, Watai continued to travel to Iceland to be with him.

Of course, the validity of Fischer’s marriage to Watai loomed large in the battle for the chess grandmaster’s estate, it being disputed by the two nephews.

It is believed that an Iceland lower court had accepted that their marriage was registered legally and had been certified in Japan but there are now even conflicting reports about this.

In any case, there now emerges a fresh twist to the inheritance joustings. From the Philippines came word that about 10 years ago, Fischer had a Filipino girlfriend, Marilyn Young, and he could have fathered a young girl named Jinky who is now nine years old.

According to Jinky’s mother and their lawyers in Manila, they have proof that Jinky is related to Fischer and he had accepted the girl as his daughter.

They said that he had been sending Jinky money and toys regularly, and signing off on his letters and postcards to her as “daddy”.

Images of the postcards floating on the Internet showed Fischer’s purportedly famous handwriting.

However, the court could not consider them as conclusive or indisputable proof of the blood ties between Fischer and Jinky. To prove a link, Jinky’s lawyers demanded for DNA tests on Fischer.

Jinky had already given her blood to a hospital in Iceland but it was then learnt that the hospital where Fischer was last warded did not keep any of his blood samples.

In the absence of Fischer’s DNA specimens, Jinky’s lawyers then petitioned the court for exhumation, a move opposed quite naturally by the other claimants. When the District Court of Reykjavik turned down the petition, the lawyers turned to the Iceland Supreme Court and won.

It’s now expected that the exhumation process may be carried out soon, maybe within the fortnight.

But if anyone thinks that the battle for Fischer’s estate could soon be over, there is yet another twist in the tale.

The last claimant to Fischer’s estate is the United States Government itself. While he was alive, the United States was already hunting him down as a fugitive from their law.

All because in 1992, Fischer had thumbed his nose at an American-sponsored United Nations embargo on dealings with the former Yugoslavia Republic, to play a highly publicised 24-game chess match with his old adversary, Boris Spassky.

He won millions from this match and now in his death, the US Government is claiming for unpaid taxes from the estate. This is because Fischer, despite dying as an Iceland citizen, was a United States citizen for almost all of his life.

Until 2004, he was still an American citizen. But his detention at the Narita international airport changed all that. During the months that he was detained and fighting deportation to the United States, he gave up his American citizenship and was stateless until the Iceland Government voted to give him their citizenship.

I don’t know what other surprises the late great Bobby Fischer can toss up from his grave but in the meantime, the world is closely watching the outcome of the exhumation. It’s your move, Bobby Fischer.