A small group in Moscow have used the Fischer "escape" to Iceland as an excuse for some Bush-bashing according to this report.
I'll add this link here. Probably the most complete mainstream report on the entire Fischer saga. God help us, it's in the Daily News. If you know the Fischer bio and have been following the detention story, there's not much new. But if you missed anything this is a worthwhile read.
What a lovely demonstration. Perhaps instead of releasing a dove into the sky they should have freed a cuckoo! Just kidding. Seriously, has Bush actually made any personal public references to Bobby? I'm curious.
One of the ironies here is that Putin was one of the few world leaders to come out with an election reference very favorable to Bush. I noticed that Kasparov did not mention Bush's name a recent article for the WSJ. I think he knows he's going to need Bush as a friend if he hopes to challenge Putin for supremacy in Russia.
Meanwhile, Kasparov clearly was bad for FIDE (well, FIDE is bad for FIDE, too). Kasparov couldn't unify the chess world, and in fact, broke it up. I wonder how he thinks Russian politics will be different.
Finally, I don't think people have noticed the real reason for Bobby's hair: he wants to look like Thor! (Couldn't resist--sorry!)
He looked a little bit more like Saddam, when he was captured.
Or like my local bum.
Guess those months in Japan weren't easy.
Another thing Fischer should be worried about is prison, in Iceland. The Simon Wiesenthal organisation in Jerúsalem wants Icelandic government to revoke Bobby Fischer his citizenship due to his jew slander. Also, people have requested that the attorney general investigates Fischers remarks in the press conference held two days ago, where the American newsreporters questioned him about why he hates jews etc. Needless to say, you don't need to be a lawyer to see that he did violate a certain penal law that says basically, translated dully: "whoever with mockery, slander, intimidation or other way publicly attacks a [person/group of people] based on their country, color[race, religion or sexuality) gets fined or could face prison up to two years."
In his defence he did apologize the day after for his remarks. It was obvious that the American press pulled his strings and knew exactly what they were doing when they pressed him.
What he said chess related was pretty much same old, he said if he played the old chess obviously he'd still be the best. "But the old chess doesn't interest me, because you have to spend time memorizing endless variations, it's absolutely stupid". He confess however that he did play some chess against his fellow prisoners in Japan, and always won!
Mig, kudos for linking the Daily News article. I enjoyed the read even though I have been following the Fischer saga for the last 30 years...
Since I am not American, since I value free speech, and since I have studied mental illness for a good part of my professional life, I feel that RJF and his Icelandic friends should now be left alone by the U.S. media. It is so easy to catch somebody in RJF's condition saying horrible things. Sure he is ravishly antisemite (even a Jewish antisemite, which in psychanalytical terms should tell a lot to whom rushes to judge him), but he is no war criminals. Even his supposed financial crimes should take the back seat to the unique oportunity for him to find a balanced psycho-social environment and follow whatever treatment he can adhere to.
Chessfriends should, despite all his awful shortcomings and mistakes, wish Bobby Fischer good luck in this new stage of his life !