Bobby Fischer

[IronParrot]

Has anyone else been following the case of legendary chess player Bobby Fischer? After over a decade on the run from U.S. authorities for breaking U.S. sanctions (he played a rematch of his famous 1972 match against Boris Spassky, but he did it in Yugoslavia where those sanctions were levied) and occasionally surfacing with an anti-American, anti-Semitic radio diatribe, he was stopped in Japan last year and has been awaiting deportation since.

In the meantime he renounced his U.S. citizenship and was offered asylum by Iceland, though last week Japan ruled that he was not a special case and could not circumvent deportation on those grounds.

Now it seems that the government of Iceland has officially granted Fischer citizenship, thus allowing him to end up there as one of their own. Incredibly, it was done with unanimous consent in the Icelandic parliament; he's somewhat of a celebrity there given how the 1972 match was held in Reykjavik.

This thread comes a bit late considering that the saga is now winding down, but have you any thoughts on Iceland's position? The States' position?