It's been only two weeks since our last report on Bobby Fischer's detention in Japan (Finding Bobby Fischer (Part 9) 22 October 2004), but Bobby is already back in the news. Reuters reported the following story this week.

• Ex-Chess Champ Fischer Stressed by Long Detention • 'Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer is stressed and angry about being detained in Japan, but his fiancee said on Tuesday she has no regrets about their relationship and hopes he will soon be free.' [2 November]
  
  

Other sources have reported on Fischer's outspokenness and on the first court hearing.

• Bobby Fischer vows revenge on PM for being put in slammer • 'Incarcerated chess genius Bobby Fischer has sworn -- in more ways than one -- to take revenge on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush for being detained in a Japanese cell for months.' [14 October; Mainichi Newspapers]
  
  
• Bobby Fischer 'ambushed' by U.S. gov't plot, new lawyer says • 'Bobby Fischer is the victim of a U.S. government plot inspired by the Bush family and his outspoken comments against them, supporters said in a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo on Monday.' [18 October; Mainichi Newspapers]
  
  
• Court Documents Exchanged in Fischer Case • 'Defense attorneys and prosecutors exchanged documents Tuesday in the first court hearing on detained former chess champion Bobby Fischer's battle against deportation to the United States.' [2 November; Guardian Newspapers / Associated Press]
  
  
• Fischer begins legal challenge • 'Lawyers for former US chess champion Bobby Fischer have completed their first court hearing in the battle against his deportation from Japan.' [2 November; BBC News]
  
  

Since the start of his detention mid-July, Fischer's case has been associated in the public's mind with that of former U.S. Army Sgt. Charles Jenkins. Accused of desertion, Jenkins surrendered to U.S. authorities in September, two months after leaving North Korea and coming to Japan. This week he was sentenced to 30 days in a military jail.

• State Dept. Daily Press Briefing for November 3 • Q: 'I'm trying to ask if the State Department conveyed to the Pentagon Japanese requests that [Jenkins] be treated leniently.' • A: 'I believe the Japanese request was made known in various ways, and I don't know them all.' • Q: 'All right. And then I'd also like to ask on another case. Presumably, you're all in favor of this, but, you know, Bobby Fischer, who is a chess player whose sole crime appears to have been going to Yugoslavia and winning some -- winning a chess match and taking some of Milosevic's money, you guys want him deported, you've taken away his passport, and I'm just wondering what, you know, what this says. You look at these two cases, both of which involve Japan, and I realize you're going to tell me that they're totally separate cases, and they are, but does it strike you as odd at all that someone who deserts from the Army in the middle of a war is being treated with less -- or with more kid gloves than someone who is a nonviolent chess player?' • A: 'Look, neither of these cases is in my hands or in the State Department's hands or anything. It's a matter of judicial authorities; in one case military justice, in another case the Department of Justice.' [4 November; Scoop Media, New Zealand]
  
  

See also Finding Bobby Fischer, an index of About Chess articles on Robert James Fischer.