Iceland votes to give citizenship to Fischer

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Iceland, the country where Bobby Fischer won the world chess championship a generation ago, granted citizenship to the 62-year-old recluse yesterday -- a boost to Fischer's efforts to fight deportation from Japan to the United States.

Fischer, who is wanted by the United States for violating economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a highly publicized match there in 1992, has been in Japanese custody since July 13. He was detained while trying to board a flight with an invalid passport.

Immigration officials in Iceland said a passport for Fischer could be ready as early as today.

The legislation, which passed with 40 members of parliament voting in favor and two abstaining, took effect immediately. The 21 other members of the Althingi were absent.

Fischer and his supporters have staged several attempts to fight the deportation order. ''I am very pleased with this and I think that the dignity of the parliament has increased," said Saemundur Palsson, a Fischer supporter, after the parliamentary vote.

There is widespread support for Fischer in Iceland, and the parliament's approval had been widely expected. The bill went through the required three readings in 12 minutes.

The Japanese government had no immediate official reaction. But Palsson has said Japan confirmed it would allow him to go to Iceland if citizenship was granted.

Since being taken into custody, Fischer has repeatedly denounced the US deportation order as politically motivated, demanded refugee status, renounced his US citizenship, and said he wants to become a German national.

Iceland's parliament voted last month against granting Fischer citizenship, offering him a special foreigners' passport and residence permit instead. But Japanese officials declined to release him. Supporters were hoping the new offer of citizenship will resolve the standoff over his status.

Fischer became an icon in 1972 when he dethroned the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America's first world chess championship in more than a century. But a few years later he forfeited the title to another Soviet, Anatoly Karpov, when he refused to defend it. He then fell into obscurity before resurfacing to play an exhibition rematch against Spassky in the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

Fischer won the rematch on the resort island of Sveti Stefan. But the game was played in violation of US sanctions. If convicted, Fischer, who hasn't been to the United States since then, could face 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.