1992 Spassky match
After twenty years, Fischer emerged from isolation to challenge Spassky (then placed 96-102 on the rating list) to a "Revenge Match of the 20th Century" in 1992. This match took place in Sveti Stefan and Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, in spite of a severe United Nations embargo that included sanctions on sporting events. Fischer demanded that the organizers bill the match as "The World Chess Championship", although Garry Kasparov was the recognized FIDE World Champion. The purse for this match was reported to be $US 5,000,000 with two-thirds to go to the winner. The U.S. Department of the Treasury had warned Fischer beforehand that his participation was illegal.[41] In front of the international press, Fischer was filmed spitting on the U.S. order forbidding him to play. Following the match, the department obtained an arrest warrant for him although some dispute the legality of the Department's claim and question why others who broke the embargo have not been prosecuted.[42] Fischer won the match, 10 wins to 5, with 15 draws. Many grandmasters observing the match[attribution needed] said that Fischer was past his prime. In the book Mortal Games, Garry Kasparov is quoted: "He is playing OK. Around 2600 or 2650. It wouldn't be close between us." He has not played any competitive games since.
Fischer insisted he was still the true world chess champion, and that all the games in the FIDE-sanctioned World Championship matches, involving Karpov, Korchnoi and Kasparov, had been pre-arranged.
[edit] Radio interviews
Fischer, whose mother and probable biological father were both Jewish[43][44], made occasional hostile comments toward Jews from at least the early 1960s. From the 1980s, however, his hatred for Jews was a major theme of his public remarks. He denied the "Holocaust of the Jews," announced his desire to make "expos[ing] the Jews for the criminals they are [...] the murderers they are" his lifework, and argued that the United States is "a farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards." [45]
In 1999, he gave a call-in interview to a radio station in Budapest, Hungary, during which he described himself as the "victim of an international Jewish conspiracy." Fischer's sudden re-emergence was apparently triggered when some of his belongings, which had been stored in a Pasadena, California storage unit, were sold by the landlord, who claimed it was in response to nonpayment of rent. Fischer interpreted this as further evidence of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy perpetrated by "the Jew-controlled U.S. Government" to defame and destroy him.[46] In 2005, some of Fischer's belongings were auctioned on eBay. In 2006, Fischer claimed that his belongings in the storage unit were worth millions.[47]
Fischer participated in at least 33 such broadcasts between 1999 and 2005, mostly with radio stations in the Philippines, but also with stations in Iceland, Colombia, and Russia.
For some years Fischer lived in Budapest. He played Chess960 blitz games as well as analyzed many games with Zsuzsa Polgar.
[edit] Radio interview after the September 11, 2001, attacks
Hours after the September 11, 2001, attacks Fischer was interviewed live[48] by Pablo Mercado on the Baguio City station of the Bombo Radyo network, shortly after midnight September 12, 2001 Philippines local time (or shortly after noon on September 11, 2001, New York time). Fischer commented on U.S and Israeli foreign policy that "nobody cares ... [that] the US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians for years".[49] [50] Informed that "the White House and Pentagon have been attacked", he proclaimed "This is all wonderful news."[49][50] Fischer stated "What goes around comes around even for the United States"[49][50] and said that if the U.S. fails to change its foreign policy, it "has to be destroyed." After calling for President Bush's death, Fischer also stated he hoped that a Seven Days in May-type military coup d' etat would take over power in the U.S. and then execute "hundreds of thousands of American Jewish leaders", "arrest all the Jews" and "close all synagogues".
Subsequent to that interview, Fischer's "right to membership in the United States Chess Federation [was] canceled" by a unanimous 7-0 decision of the USCF Executive Board, taken on October 28, 2001. In 2006, that decision was subsequently "vacated" by the same Board.
