The curious endgame of Bobby Fischer

There was always something notorious about Bobby Fischer: the enigmatic chess master who died January 2008 left behind a slew of questions about his contribution to the game, his mental state, his US allegiance (or lack of it) and his anti-Semitism. He may also have left behind a Filipino heir.

Yes, you may recall that Fischer was often spotted popping up in the Philippines in the early Oughties  phoning a local radio station, for instance, on Sept. 11, 2001 to declare it “a wonderful day.”

Now it seems he has two female claims to his fortune  or what’s left of it.

One is a Japanese woman, Miyoko Watai, a four-time chess champion whom Fischer met in 1973 and reportedly later married. The other is Marilyn Young, a Filipina that Fischer met in August 2000 at a Baguio country club. They began dating shortly after and  you guessed it  about a year later, out popped Jinky, Marilyn’s daughter. So everyone’s now asking: who’s the daddy?

Fisher did not leave a final will before his death at age 64. According to the New York Times, an exhumation of Fischer’s remains is underway in Iceland to prove Jinky’s paternity once and for all. In a week or so, the world will know if he was the Fischer King  or maybe just a pawn.

Over the past decades, Fischer  who disappeared from the world of chess after defeating Boris Spassky in a 1972 championship match  grew increasingly erratic and bizarre, almost becoming the Howard Hughes of chess whizzes. He renounced the game, the United States, Jews (he himself was Jewish), only to reemerge at odd intervals, usually playing for cash, as when he won a rematch against Spassky in Yugoslavia, 1992, pocketing a $3.85 million prize.

Unfortunately, the US had a trade embargo with Yugoslavia at the time and Fischer, a US citizen, became a fugitive.

What can the life of a fugitive be like? It’s one thing to hide in the hinterlands of your own country, like romanticized Filipino rebels do. But what of those who take it on the lam globally, like Roman Polanski and Fischer? While director Polanski seems to have retained a solid bloc of respect in the industry despite his hiding in Switzerland and whatever other countries will take him in, hoping that the quarter-century-old rape charges against him will someday evaporate, Fischer seemed to deliberately hasten his own obscurity.

Perhaps one of the best places to lose  and find  yourself is the Philippines. This may explain why Fischer kept an apartment here at the turn of the millennium, befriending local radio broadcasters and occasionally turning up in public, where he was hardly a recognizable figure. But local chess fans knew him, and his eccentric reputation. To Filipinos, searching for Bobby Fischer must have seemed like a perfect slice of quirky celebrityhood; in any case, Fischer made friends, and it will take a laboratory DNA test to find out if he was more than “friends” with Ms. Young. (The Times article notes that Young refused to be interviewed unless she was paid a “talent fee.”)

As to the chess master’s inheritance, there might not be much left to pick through after the US takes a chunk for overdue taxes. Then there are Fischer’s nephews (whom the Times reports the chess player wasn’t too crazy about) standing in line. If the DNA proves Young and daughter Jinky are the rightful heirs, they stand to claim two-thirds of Fischer’s fortune, probably amounting to $1 million or so. If not, Watai would get it all. It’s an intriguing extra round of maneuvering in the afterlife of one of the most eccentric figures in the world of chess.

Life, it seems, is more like a game of chess than a box of chocolates. For some, though, it’s not a swift romp but an endgame played on the run. Fischer remained at the fringes of popular consciousness in his final chapter, with movies like Searching for Bobby Fischer reviving interest in the ‘90s. He shuttled between Japan and here in his last decade. But more often he became a crazy footnote, as with that 9/11 radio call-in.

There’s something perversely fascinating about genius slipping off the rails. I sometimes imagine Fischer, poking around the Bagiuo markets, his lengthy beard dangling down over the ad hoc chessboards set up in local cafés. It’s probably not him  just another expat, looking for redemption or some quantum of solace. Or just looking to get lost.

It wouldn’t be the first time a lonely, embattled expat has found comfort in a faraway land. Fischer did marry Ms. Watai in 2004, though some see it as a strategic move by Fischer, who was in detention in Japan at the time due to those pending US charges against him, and may have thought the marriage would gain him freedom again.

See? Notorious to the end. Forget your slutty Russian spies and their peekaboo shots. Fischer’s tale is worth a dozen cheap novels.