Fischer in solitary after meal fracas

TOKYO: Chess grand master Bobby Fischer was placed in solitary confinement at a Japanese immigration detention center after a fracas with guards at breakfast, his fiancee and ex-bodyguard said on Monday.

Fischer's fiancee, Miyoko Watai, a four-time Japan women's chess champion who last year announced plans to marry Fischer, said he told her during a meeting on Monday morning that he had been in solitary confinement from last Wednesday to Sunday morning at the detention center in Ushiku, northeast of Tokyo.

"There was a bit of trouble with some of the staff," Watai told a news conference.

Watai said Fischer became involved in a dispute with guards when he asked for an additional boiled egg at breakfast. The dispute escalated to a scuffle, leading Fischer to be placed in solitary confinement.

The former world chess champion is fighting deportation from Japan to the United States, where he is wanted for violating sanctions against Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there in 1992.

-- Reuters