He had faded into reclusive obscurity since that rematch against Spassky in 1992, but 911once again brought him backinto the limelight. He suddenly rang up a Filipino radio station to hail the "wonderful news" of the terrorist attacks and launch a profanity-laden anti-Jewish tirade.
"One can only speculate that his remarks on September 11 so outraged the US administration that the call went out, let's get Bobby Fischer," said David Edmonds, who co-authored a book on the 1972 match, "Bobby Fischer Goes to War."
In one part of the September 11 broadcast, Fischer declared that "nobody has single-handedly done more for the US than me" by making it seem "as an intellectualcountry."
"But now I'm not useful anymore. You see, the Cold War is over and now they want to wipe me out, get everything I have, put me into prison," hehad then said.
"For two years of his life he completely and utterly dominated chess like no one has before," Edmonds said of Fischer.
"I think many in the chess world don't want Bobby Fischer's anti-Semitic and violently anti-American remarks to sully his reputation as one of the greatest chess players of all time."
On July 13, 2004, Fischer was taken into custody at Tokyo's Narita airport for travelling on a passport which Washington said was revoked.
With Japan deliberating for months on whether to send him to the United States, Iceland came to his rescue in 2005, granting him citizenship in tribute to his role in making the island -- and the game of chess -- famous in 1972.
As the United States vowed to arrest him if he ever set foot again in his homeland, Fischer began his new life with typical anti-Jewish slurs and by lambasting his country of origin.
"The Jew-controlled United States is evil. They talk about the axis of evil. What about the allies of evil? What about the US, England, Japan, Australia and so on? These are the evil doers,"Fischer would say every now and then.