Body of Fischer exhumed for DNA
Source: Agencies |
July 6, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AUTHORITIES in Iceland have exhumed the body of American chess champion Bobby Fischer to determine whether he is the father of a 9-year-old girl from the Philippines.
Police said Fischer's corpse was dug up from a cemetery near Selfoss in southern Iceland early yesterday in the presence of a doctor, a priest and other officials.
Fischer was reburied after DNA samples were taken.
Fischer died in Iceland in January 2008 aged 64. He left no will, and legal wrangling continues over his estate.
Last month Iceland's supreme court ruled Fischer should be exhumed so DNA testing could determine whether he was the father of Jinky Young, whose mother Marilyn said she had a relationship with Fischer.
Jinky, who lives in the Philippines with her mother, flew to Iceland to provide her own blood sample in December.
Fischer, born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, New York, became world famous in 1972 when he defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union for the world championship in a tournament, played in Reykjavik, that brimmed with Cold War symbolism.
Fischer became an American hero, but his later life was dominated by erratic, eccentric behavior.
He lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, spending time in Hungary and the Philippines and emerging occasionally to make outspoken and often outrageous comments.
He renounced his US citizenship and spent nine months in custody before chess-loving Iceland granted him citizenship.
Police said Fischer's corpse was dug up from a cemetery near Selfoss in southern Iceland early yesterday in the presence of a doctor, a priest and other officials.
Fischer was reburied after DNA samples were taken.
Fischer died in Iceland in January 2008 aged 64. He left no will, and legal wrangling continues over his estate.
Last month Iceland's supreme court ruled Fischer should be exhumed so DNA testing could determine whether he was the father of Jinky Young, whose mother Marilyn said she had a relationship with Fischer.
Jinky, who lives in the Philippines with her mother, flew to Iceland to provide her own blood sample in December.
Fischer, born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, New York, became world famous in 1972 when he defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union for the world championship in a tournament, played in Reykjavik, that brimmed with Cold War symbolism.
Fischer became an American hero, but his later life was dominated by erratic, eccentric behavior.
He lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, spending time in Hungary and the Philippines and emerging occasionally to make outspoken and often outrageous comments.
He renounced his US citizenship and spent nine months in custody before chess-loving Iceland granted him citizenship.
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