Miyoko Watai
Chess Olympiad 1980
CountryJapan
Born (1945-01-08) January 8, 1945
Tokyo, Japan
TitleWoman International Master (1997)
FIDE rating2032 (January 2003)
Peak rating2050 (January 1997)

Miyoko Watai (渡井 美代子, Watai Miyoko, born January 8, 1945) is a retired Japanese chess player and widow of former world chess champion Bobby Fischer.

Biography

She was awarded the title of Woman International Master by FIDE in 1997.[1] Watai is a four-time Japanese women's champion. She lives in Kamata ward, which is now part of Ōta, Tokyo.

In 1973, she met then world chess champion Bobby Fischer, and visited him several times for the next three decades. Starting in 2000 they reportedly lived together in a de facto marriage at her home.[2] After Bobby Fischer's detention on July 13, 2004, for trying to travel with a revoked U.S. passport, she campaigned for his release.

They were reportedly married in August 2004. According to an attorney representing a competing claim to Fischer's estate, the Supreme Court of Iceland ruled in December 2009 that Watai's claim of marriage to Fischer was invalidated because of her failure to present the original of their alleged marriage certificate.[3] However, on March 3, 2011, a district court in Iceland ruled that Miyoko Watai, as Fischer's widow and heir, was entitled to inherit his estate. It also ruled that Watai and Fischer had legally married on September 6, 2004.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Di Felice, Gino (2017). Chess International Title Holders, 1950-2016. McFarland. ISBN 9781476671321.
  2. ↑ Frederick, Jim (August 23, 2004). "King's Gambit". Time. Archived from the original on August 17, 2013. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  3. ↑ "Fischer’s remains to be exhumed?" Archived 2010-06-29 at the Wayback Machine. ChessBase. 1 April 2010.
  4. ↑ "Iceland Court Hands Bobby Fischer Estate to Japanese Claimant". The New York Times. 4 March 2011. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
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