Fischer died in January, 2008 at the age of 64 – but he failed to leave a will and his estate, worth an estimated $2 million (£1.25 million), has been the subject of contention ever since.
A woman recently stepped forward to lay claim to his assets, alleging Fischer had fathered her nine-year-old daughter, Jinky Young, while he was living in the Philippines.
Officials decided to dig up his remains at a cemetery near the city of Reykjavik on Monday (05Jul10) to extract DNA samples in an attempt to settle the woman’s bid. Fischer’s body was buried again hours later.
Speaking on Monday (05Jul10), local sheriff Olafur Helgi Kjartansson says, “I can confirm that Bobby Fischer’s body was exhumed this morning. The procedure was conducted in a highly professional and dignified manner. It was a priority with everybody present to show respect to the deceased.”
The news comes weeks after a judge at Iceland’s Supreme Court approved the exhumation to establish whether Fischer was the father of Young.
However, if the claim proves to be true, the girl’s mum won’t be the only person fighting for a share of Fischer’s estate – his two American nephews, a Japanese woman named Myoko Watai, who insists she was his wife, and U.S. government officials from the Internal Revenue Service, to which he owed unpaid taxes, are all battling for a slice of the fortune.
