Getting Bobby out of jail

Despite Fischer’s famously bizarre behavior and reclusive ways, Saemi – a cheerful and trustworthy family-man – broke down those barriers to become one of the few people whom the suspicious Fischer considered a friend. Saemi managed to see past the awkward, Prima Donna exterior to get to the Fischer who could be both funny and entertaining but also just like a little boy lost.

After the championship, Saemi traveled back with Fischer to America where he continued to work as his bodyguard. But at the peak of his fame, Fischer decided not to cash in on his superstar status and instead completely withdrew from public life, isolating himself and shunning every chess tournament and sponsorship deal that was offered to him. His paranoia deepened, resulting in him carrying around suitcases of antidote pills in case the Soviets poisoned him. In the throes of this crisis, Fischer never paid Saemi for any of his services and after six turbulent months Saemi was forced to return to Iceland.

Even though Fischer’s treatment of him left much to be desired, Saemi – whose kindness and generosity knows no bounds – continued to keep up their friendship. But as Fischer retreated further and further into his own mind, he began rejecting his friends too and the two men lost contact. It would be another 20 years before Saemi would hear his friend Bobby’s voice again.

One night in 2004 Saemi was awoken by a phone call from a Japanese jail asking him to accept a collect call from Bobby Fischer. Saemi didn’t think twice in saying yes. But what he didn’t know was that in accepting this call he would be entering into the biggest battle of his life which would take him half way across the world and take him right back into the heart of Fischer’s crazy world.

After living in Tokyo for a few years, Fischer had been arrested at the airport after trying to travel to Manila and thrown into a Japanese jail for illegal immigrants. The US authorities had only just revoked his passport for an old offense of violating the American trade embargo against Yugoslavia. This happened way back in 1992 when he played a comeback chess tournament with his old opponent Spassky during the Yugoslavian civil war. (Fischer famously spat on the letter from the US treasury department warning him that if he took part in the tournament he would be liable to a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison). But there was another motive for the US to invoke this old warrant for his arrest: Bobby Fischer had crept back into the public eye after broadcasting a spate of raging anti-American and anti-Semitic speeches, fueling the authorities into taking action. Fischer had become an enemy of the state.

After six months suffering hunger, psychological torture and cornered in the confinement of his cell, Fischer made a shrewd winning move and brought forward an unexpected player – Saemi Rock Palsson.

After Fischer’s phone call, Saemi put things in motion, working day and night, pulling strings and calling in favors to free his old friend. He flew to Tokyo where he met the Japanese chess champion and Fischer’s girlfriend Miyoko Watai who had been trying and failing to win Fischer his freedom. Things weren’t helped by Fischer’s constant disputes with the prison guards. On the day Saemi visited the prison, Fischer hit one of the guards resulting in him being sectioned in an isolation cell and refused visits. But Saemi didn’t give up hope. He put his politeness and endurance to good use, giving strength and hope to the people working the case in Tokyo.

In collaboration with Fischer´s lawyer Masaka Suzuki and the Tokyo-based Canadian journalist John Bosnitch, Saemi promoted the case, managing to get a hearing at the Japanese parliament where he presented his simple request: defy the US government and take an independent decision – release Bobby Fischer immediately. But the Japanese were not ready to give in. Fischer faced deportation to the US where he now faced 20 years in prison.

Saemi was finally granted permission on Fischer’s birthday to visit his old friend. He was shocked at what he found. The 62-year-old with his long grey hair and beard looked like a wild man of the woods. It was an emotional meeting, the two friends separated for so many years, still separated, but this time by just a glass wall.

Saemi realized he had to change his strategy. He returned home and with the backing of the Icelandic Chess Federation, Saemi went straight to the top and appealed to Iceland’s Prime Minister – if Fischer was granted Icelandic citizenship then he would no longer be bound by American law and Japan would have to free him.

But Saemi had a tough fight on his hands. The Icelandic government was not known for rocking the boat. Keeping a “good relationship” with the USA was high on their agenda and not only that but the Icelandic PM was also a friend of President George Bush. Saemi delivered his argument anyway – why should Fischer be persecuted just for playing a game of chess? The matter was put to the vote at the Icelandic parliament where they won by a unanimous vote. The Prime Minister said that Fischer’s citizenship had been granted for humanitarian reasons and because Saemi was a “man of honor”. Against all odds, Saemi had done the seemingly impossible. He had freed his friend.

As soon as the documents were stamped, the authorities in Tokyo had to release Fischer. He was taken to the airport where the world’s press eagerly awaited him. But Fischer’s psychopathic tendencies wouldn’t let him just bask in his freedom. Instead, he used the opportunity to deliver a bitter tirade against the President of the U.S. and the PM of Japan, saying they should be hanged for their crimes.

Saemi tried his best to help his friend settle into his new Icelandic life but Fischer had problems adjusting. With his experiences in prison only feeding his paranoid delusions, Fischer began demanding much of Saemi’s time and energy, hanging around Saemi’s house everyday expecting to be the focus of attention. But with a wife, four children, and 10 grandchildren, Saemi just wanted to get back to his quiet family life after the grueling struggle in Tokyo.

It was then that the ungrateful Fischer began creating disputes, many of them focusing on money. After about six months their friendship started to crack. All of Fischer’s anger was directed at Saemi – the man who had saved him from a life behind bars. Fischer’s inability to apologize meant that he resorted to his old reclusive behavior, locking himself away and refusing to speak to anyone despite all of Saemi’s efforts to keep their friendship going. Even when Fischer developed kidney failure he refused to tell his old friend.

Saemi only found out about Fischer’s death in January 2008 when he heard it on the radio. He wasn’t even invited to his funeral.

But through all of this, Saemi harbors no regrets or ill feelings. He has no bad words to say about the man who took his friendship with one hand and then through it back in his face with the other. Always smiling, always helpful and still rock ‘n’ roll dancing at the age of 72, Saemi ‘Rock’ Palsson is a very rare example – a truly altruistic man.