The Gift of Chess

Notice to commercial publishers seeking use of images from this collection of chess-related archive blogs. For use of the many large color restorations, two conditions must be met: 1) It is YOUR responsibility to obtain written permissions for use from the current holders of rights over the original b/w photo. Then, 2) make a tax-deductible donation to The Gift of Chess in honor of Robert J. Fischer-Newspaper Archives. A donation in the amount of $250 USD or greater is requested for images above 2000 pixels and other special request items. For small images, such as for fair use on personal blogs, all credits must remain intact and a donation is still requested but negotiable. Please direct any photographs for restoration and special request (for best results, scanned and submitted at their highest possible resolution), including any additional questions to S. Mooney, at bobbynewspaperblogs•gmail. As highlighted in the ABC News feature, chess has numerous benefits for individuals, including enhancing critical thinking and problem-solving skills, improving concentration and memory, and promoting social interaction and community building. Initiatives like The Gift of Chess have the potential to bring these benefits to a wider audience, particularly in areas where access to educational and recreational resources is limited.

Best of Chess Fischer Newspaper Archives
• Robert J. Fischer, 1955 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1956 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1957 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1958 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1959 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1960 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1961 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1962 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1963 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1964 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1965 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1966 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1967 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1968 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1969 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1970 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1971 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1972 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1973 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1974 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1975 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1976 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1977 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1978 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1979 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1980 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1981 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1982 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1983 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1984 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1985 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1986 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1987 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1988 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1989 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1990 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1991 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1992 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1993 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1994 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1995 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1996 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1997 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1998 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1999 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2000 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2001 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2002 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2003 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2004 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2005 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2006 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2007 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2008 bio + additional games
Chess Columns Additional Archives/Social Media

2005 Bobby Fischer Newspaper Articles

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Lincoln Journal Star, Lincoln, Nebraska, Tuesday, March 08, 2005 - Page 10

Iceland offers passport to jailed Bobby Fischer
Tokyo — Chess legend Bobby Fischer has been granted an Icelandic passport and the right to reside there but has been refused permission to leave the detention center in Japan where he is being held pending deportation to the United States, his lawyers and supporters said Monday.
“His passport is waiting for him at the embassy,” said former Iceland parliament member Gudmundur Thorarinsson, who met with Fischer Monday, the day after the chess great was released from four days of solitary confinement.
Supporters said he was placed in isolation after getting into a scuffle with guards over their refusal to give him an egg for breakfast. Immigration officials were not available to comment.

Iceland offers passport to jailed Bobby Fischer

St. Cloud Times, Saint Cloud, Minnesota, Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - Page 2

Iceland grants Fischer citizenship
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP) — Iceland, the country where Bobby Fischer won the world chess championship a generation ago, granted citizenship to the 62-year-old recluse Monday — a boost to Fischer's efforts to fight deportation from Japan to the United States.
Fischer, who is wanted by the United States for violating economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a highly publicized match in 1992 in that country, has been in Japanese custody since July 13. He was detained while trying to board a flight with an invalid passport.
Immigration officials in Iceland said a passport for Fischer could be ready as early as Tuesday.
The legislation, which passed with 40 members of parliament voting in favor and two abstaining, took effect immediately. The 21 other members of the Althingi were absent.
In Washington, the State Department declined comment, citing laws governing rights to privacy in such situations. Fischer has the authority to waive his privacy rights has not done so.
Fischer and his supporters have staged high-profile attempts to fight the deportation order.
“I am very pleased with this and I think that the dignity of the parliament has increased,” said Saemundur Palsson, a Fischer supporter, after the parliamentary vote.
There is widespread support for Fischer in Iceland, and the parliament's approval had been expected. The bill went through the required three readings in 12 minutes.
The Japanese government had no immediate reaction. But Palsson has claimed Japan confirmed it would allow him to go to Iceland if citizenship was granted.
A federal grand jury in Washington, meanwhile, is investigating money-laundering charges involving Fischer, Richard J. Vattuone, one of his lawyers said.
Fischer was reported to have received $3.5 million from the competition in the former Yugoslavia. He boasted at the time that he didn't intend to pay any income tax on the money.

Iceland grants Fischer citizenship

Stevens Point Journal Stevens Point, Wisconsin Friday, March 25, 2005 - Page 9

Chess Icon Calls U.S. 'Illegitimate Country'
BY MILES EDELSTEIN
The Associated Press ABOARD SAS FLIGHT SK984 — Sitting in the first-class cabin whisking him away from nine months detention in Japan, chess icon Bobby Fischer on Thursday launched a rambling diatribe against the United States, calling it "an illegitimate country" that should be given back to the American Indians.
The reclusive Fischer —who is taking up residence in Iceland to avoid arrest in the United States — also unleashed his anger at Israel and likened President Bush to a comic book character.
Fischer said he was “kidnapped” in Japan, and that Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi were in cahoots trying to deprive him of freedom and return him to the United States, where he is wanted on criminal charges.
“Bush does not respect law,” Fischer said on board the SAS flight to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he had a stopover before being flown to Iceland, which this week granted him citizenship.
“It's like in the comics, like Billy Batson used to say ‘Shazam!’ and he becomes Captain Marvel. He (Bush) just says ‘Enemy Combatant! Now you have no legal rights.’ It's a farce,” he said. “This is absolutely cooked up between Bush and Koizumi.”
Fischer, wide-eyed and bushy-bearded after his months in detention, paused frequently.
The eccentric chess genius was unusually expansive on the flight, unleashing his anger against two of his favorite targets: The U.S. government and Israel. He disclosed a world view that has him as the underdog besieged by a bullying America.
“The United States is an illegitimate country … just like the bandit state of Israel — Zionists have no right to be there, it belongs to the Palestinians.” said Fischer. “That country, the United States, belongs to the red man, the American Indian … It's actually a shame to be a so-called American.”
He traced the origins of his troubled relationship with his homeland to his failed lawsuit in the 1970s against Time Inc., now Time-Warner, for defamation of character, breach of contract and other issues: a U.S. District Court threw it out as groundless.
“I got laughed out of court,” he said. This is when I began to realize what kind of a country America was then … it's just a sham democracy. … That's when I started to part company with the U.S.”
Late Thursday, Fischer arrived in Iceland to accept an offer of citizenship from the country still grateful for its role as the site of his most famous match. In 1972 Fisher won his world championship victory over Russian Boris Spassky in the Cold War chess showdown that propelled Fischer to international stardom.
Fischer, 62, is wanted by the United States for violating sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia by playing an exhibition match there against Spassky in 1992.
He was detained by Japanese officials last July for using an invalid U.S. passport. Fischer claims the travel document was revoked illegally, and sued to block a deportation order to the United States.
Iceland's Parliament stepped in this week to break the standoff by giving Fischer citizenship. But Fischer is by no means in the clear, as Iceland, like Japan, has an extradition treaty with the United States.
Fischer denied he had been carrying an invalid passport in Japan and called Koizumi “a stooge.” “It's just my misfortune that this criminal idiot Koizumi … (is) willing to do anything Bush tells him,” said Fischer.
Asked whether he thought he might find U.S. authorities more tolerant of him if he toned down his rhetoric, Fischer said he was too old to change. “I grew up with the concept of freedom of speech. I'm too old. It's too late for me to adjust to the new world, the new world order,” he said with a chuckle.

Chess Icon Calls U.S. 'Illegitimate Country'

'til the world understands why Robert J. Fischer criticised the U.S./British and Russian military industry imperial alliance and their own Israeli Apartheid. Sarah Wilkinson explains:

Bobby Fischer, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech
What a sad story Fischer was,” typed a racist, pro-imperialist colonial troll who supports mega-corporation entities over human rights, police state policies & white supremacy.
To which I replied: “Really? I think he [Bob Fischer] stood up to the broken system of corruption and raised awareness! Whether on the Palestinian/Israel-British-U.S. Imperial Apartheid scam, the Bush wars of ‘7 countries in 5 years,’ illegally, unconstitutionally which constituted mass xenocide or his run in with police brutality in Pasadena, California-- right here in the U.S., police run rampant over the Constitution of the U.S., on oath they swore to uphold, but when Americans don't know the law, and the cops either don't know or worse, “don't care” -- then I think that's pretty darn “sad”. I think Mr. Fischer held out and fought the good fight, steadfast til the day he died, and may he Rest In Peace.
Educate yourself about U.S./State Laws --
https://www.youtube.com/@AuditTheAudit/videos
After which the troll posted a string of profanities, confirming there was never any genuine sentiment of “compassion” for Mr. Fischer, rather an intent to inflict further defamatory remarks.

This ongoing work is a tribute to the life and accomplishments of Robert “Bobby” Fischer who passionately loved and studied chess history. May his life continue to inspire many other future generations of chess enthusiasts and kibitzers, alike.

Robert J. Fischer, Kid Chess Wizard 1956March 9, 1943 - January 17, 2008

The photograph of Bobby Fischer (above) from the March 02, 1956 The Tampa Times was discovered by Sharon Mooney (Bobby Fischer Newspaper Archive editor) on February 01, 2018 while gathering research materials for this ongoing newspaper archive project. Along with lost games now being translated into Algebraic notation and extractions from over two centuries of newspapers, it is but one of the many lost treasures to be found in the pages of old newspapers since our social media presence was first established November 11, 2017.

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