is a retired Japanese

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player and widow of former

world chess champion The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 matc ...

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11� ...

Biography

She was awarded the title of

Woman International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

in 1997. Watai is a four-time Japanese women's champion. She lives in Kamata ward, which is now part of

Ōta, Tokyo is a special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. In English, it is often called Ōta City. , the ward has an estimated population of 716,413, with 379,199 households and a population density of 12,048.65 persons per km2. The total area ...

. In 1973, she met then

, 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. 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 The Supreme Court of Iceland (, lit. ''Highest Court of Iceland'') is the final court of appeal in the judiciary of Iceland. It is also the oldest of the current courts of law in Iceland and the highest of the three Icelandic court branches, ...

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."Fischer’s remains to be exhumed?"
. ChessBase. 1 April 2010. 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.

References

External links

*
Miyoko Watai
chess games at 365Chess.com * * * 1945 births Living people Chess Woman International Masters Japanese chess players Japanese pharmacists Sportspeople from Tokyo {{Japan-chess-bio-stub