The Life of Bobby Fischer's Wife: Miyoko Watai
Not much is known about Miyoko Watai, even the fact that Fischer was married at all is relatively unknown. This blog post is here to show not only the wife of Bobby Fischer but also the successes of Watai as a female chess player in Japan.
Miyoko's Chess Career
Miyoko Watai has found success in her home country of Japan in the chess theatre. She first learnt to play after graduating from Meiji Pharmaceutical University. From then she developed a strong passion for chess. From 1972 onwards, she began attending the chess olympiad conferences and playing competitively. Watai would become the Japanese Woman's Chess Champion in 1975. She would also become a titled player in 1997, earning the position of International Master by FIDE. She would go on to win the title of Japan Women's Championship another three times in the coming years.
Watai throughout her career as a chess player, in light of the exceeding popularity of Shogi and Go in Asia, has been determined to develop chess in Japan. Inbetween legal struggles with the arrest of Bobby Fischer and later the claim to his estate, Watai has been attempting to increase the popularity of chess as an ambassador, author of two beginner's chess books and acting president and general secretary of the Japan Chess Association.
A relationship spanning decades - Watai & Fischer's relationship
Miyoko is most known for her marriage to chess legend Bobby Fischer, although even this fact is obscure to many. They first met when Fischer visited the Japan Chess Association in Tokyo in 1973 to find sponsors for the Spassky rematch. Watai acted as a tour guide for Fischer for his visit. They befriended each other and kept in touch via corresponding letters throughout the years. They met each other in person again the following year, as Fischer invited Watai to visit his home before her trip to Colombia for the Women's Chess Olympiad of 1974. By this time Fischer was associated with a religious cult, where he mostly lived and where Miyoko came to visit.
Watai and Fischer's relationship soon blossomed intimately. By the year 2000, they were living together in Japan in a state of "de facto" marriage. It was the arrest of Bobby Fischer from the attempt to travel to the US on an invalid passport that led to action by the Japanese authorities to deport Fischer. This legal struggle consumed much of Miyoko's time, and ironically lead them to get officially married for legal advantages in 2004.
Miyoko Watai hasn't played an official match since 1999 and has generally kept a low profile. However, she is still enthralled in conflict with Bobby Fischer's family. Following Bobby’s death in 2008, there were competing claims by Watai, Marilyn Ong (who claimed to be the mother of Bobby’s daughter Jinky) and two of Bobby’s nephews (Alexander and Nicholas Targ), all of which have been battling for possession of Fischer's $2million estate.
Miyoko Watai's claim that she and Bobby were married has been certified by Iceland’s highest court, making her the heir to Fischer’s estate. Whilst the claims of Marilyn Ong of being the mother of Fischer's child has been proven false through a DNA test of Bobby's exhumed remains inquired by the Icelandic Supreme Court. Because of the fact that Fischer did not leave a will before dying, there still remains disputes between Watai and Fischer's nephews which is still ongoing.
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