chess pieces

Nansý Davíðsdóttir this weekend became the first girl to be crowned Icelandic children’s chess champion. The Icelandic Children’s Chess Championship has been running since 1994. Read the full story

A chess piece recently discovered at Siglunes, Iceland could explain the origin of the mysterious Uig chessmen associated with the island of Lewis, off Scotland: they could originally have come from Iceland. Read the full story

The Reykjavik District Court yesterday declared that Miyoko Watai was chess grand master Bobby Fischer’s legal wife after all. Read the full story

The results of a DNA test carried out on the exhumed corpse of chess legend Bobby Fischer indicate that he is not the father of Jinky Jong, Icelandic officials say. The results were passed to the Reykjavik District Court yesterday. Read the full story

A Norwegian teen is set to become a household name since being named the best chess player on the planet. Magnus Carlsen is just 17 years old, but after being ranked the world’s top player and still in the running to win the Final Chess Masters in Bilbao, Spain, the teen is on his way to stardom.

Carlsen comes from Lommedalen, a scenic valley near Oslo, and received overwhelming praise from the secretary general of the Norwegian Chess Association, Dag Danielsen, for his “action-packed” play in the finals. “I think Magnus Carlsen is the best-known Norwegian who’s ever lived,” Read the full story

Chess legend Bobby Fischer died at the age of 64 in Iceland, was buried almost secretly and left behind him a legacy of confusion that echoed the controversy he sowed about him while he lived.

According to the Times Online, Fischer was buried on 21st January in a churchyard in southwest Iceland. Priest Jakob Rolland presided over the last rites, having been informed of the location only hours prior to the service.

“Like [Mozart and Jesus Christ], he was buried with few present,” said Rolland about Fischer. “And like them he had an intelligence that could see what others could not even begin to understand.”

Although many understood Fischer to be a genius, particularly when it came to chess, they found it harder to understand his vocal stances against America and against the Jewish religion, especially considering Fischer was himself a Jewish American.

Also confusing was Fischer’s lack of legal will. Under Icelandic law, the lack of any will or any offspring means that a person’s spouse will receive the estate. Miyoko Watai, Fischer’s Japanese wife, was present at his funeral and stands to receive the chess legend’s GBP 1.5 million fortune.

Only hours after Fischer had passed away from kidney disease, ownership of his fortune was already being disputed. Fischer’s brother-in-law has made a claim on behalf of his two sons for the fortune and a third claim has also surfaced, from the mother of a 7-year old Philippine girl who may be Fischer’s daughter.

In addition, the government of the United States may want a piece of Fischer’s pie, claiming that he owes unpaid taxes to the state.

The ministry of justice in Iceland is accepting claims on the estate by all parties until May 17th and will rule on the matter after that time.

Chess legend Bobby Fischer, who died on January 17th, was recently buried at a country church in Iceland during a Catholic funeral service. Though the service itself may have been peaceful, the legal wrangling over Fischer’s million dollar fortune may be about to turn nasty.

In a Visir report published in Iceland last week, it was claimed that the £1.07 million estate of the late chess champion would pass to Miyoko Watai, Fischer’s supposed widow.

The report said: “It has been confirmed that Watai was Fischer’s wife, not his girlfriend as has been argued so many times.”

Russel Targ, Fischer’s brother-in-law, has flown to Iceland in order to pursue legal investigations into the matter of inheritance which he feels should belong to his two sons, according to Buzzle.com

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