TOKYO, Aug. 24 — Japan ordered today that Bobby Fischer, the American chess
master wanted in the United States for violating a trade embargo, be deported,
after his request for protection as a political refugee was rejected, according
to his supporters.
Mr. Fischer's lawyers immediately filed an appeal with the Justice Ministry, and
it was not expected that a final move to deport him would be made soon.
The ministry explained its decision to reject Mr. Fischer's bid for political
asylum, saying that the charges outstanding against him in the United are "not
political in nature," according to a statement released by the chess player's
supporters, the Committee to Free Bobby Fischer.
In 1992, Mr. Fischer, now 61, earned $3.3 million by beating Boris Spassky in
Belgrade, in a chess rematch of their famous cold war duel in Iceland. A warrant
for his arrest was issued on charges that he violated a trade embargo on the
former Yugoslavia.
The United States ordered the revocation of Mr. Fischer's passport last
December, and he was detained on July 13 as he tried to fly from Narita Airport
here to Manila. His lawyer said on Thursday that Mr. Fischer had learned that
his passport had been revoked only when he tried to board the flight.
In their first match, in 1972, Mr. Fischer became a national hero by breaking
the Soviet grip on world chess and becoming the first American chess champion in
more than a century.
Last Friday, the Tokyo District Court rejected another attempt to halt
deportation proceedings against Mr. Fischer, who filed an appeal immediately.
Mr. Fischer, who is being held at an immigration center in Ushiku, Ibaraki
Prefecture, has also tried to fend off deportation by trying to renounce his
American citizenship and by marrying a Japanese woman, Miyoko Watai, 59, the
acting president of the Japan Chess Association.
Mr. Fischer, a brilliant but eccentric recluse, has become increasingly vocal in
recent years, making a series of anti-Semitic statements on his personal Web
site, and harshly criticizing the United States, which he said in a radio
interview should be "wiped out." His supporters maintain that the charges
against him are politically motivated.