Chapter 33.8: Mate in Three Moves?

I was intrigued by the re-emergence of chess master Bobby Fischer, who has been detained in a Japanese jail since last July. Apparently he hadn't shaved since then and his face was covered in a gray beard, which looked perfectly suited for his new life in Iceland.

He reportedly has become an Icelandic citizen and renounced his U.S. citizenship. He and his Japanese wife, whom I believe he married while he was in prison, flew to Reykjavik. They love him in Iceland, where he won his most famous chess match against Russian master Boris Spassky, a 1972 battle in the Cold War.

I didn't realize the problems with the United States revolved around his earning $3 million for beating Spassky again. The 1992 match was in the former Yugoslavia, which was verboten territory for Americans back then, according to the article.

As I recall, Fischer had been a bit of a recluse prior to 1992 also.

Personally, I think there should be t-shirts emblazoned with his bearded, baseball-capped visage, perhaps with a phrase in Icelandic -- not that I know anything about the country outside of Björk (or is it Bjørk?). He denounces governments, plays chess better than 100 percent of the planet (statistically speaking), and runs away to the Arctic circle. How cool is that!