American chess master renounces US citizenship

Bobby Fischer will be a stateless person for a while

Chess master Bobby Fischer announced his decision to renounce the American citizenship. Fischer's attorney Masako Suzuki said the chess player called the US embassy in Tokyo to inform the authorities about the decision. Bobby Fischer will be a stateless person for a certain period of time.

Fischer's advocates strive for the refugee status to be granted to Fischer by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. For the time being the chess master is held at the deportation center in Tokyo's airport, where US authorities detained him. The US government accuses the chess master of violating sanctions against Yugoslavia. In 1992 Bobby Fischer played chess with Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia, which the US law prohibited.