Fischer's Philippine Connections

Yet another Fischer post, but this one, dear readers, has a particularly unique angle. It's about Fischer and his Filipino connection, but most especially a romantic one!

In one of the "reactions" (to Fischer's death) videos on Chessvibes, GM Ljubomir Ljubojevic suddenly said that Fischer has an offspring in the Philippines. That just too me aback! I only quarter-remembered this bit of detail and was no longer certain if it was true. But a quick email from our friend Manny Benitez confirmed that Ljubojevic's statement is, indeed, correct. And now, this morning, I saw this:

Fischer played tennis at the Baguio Country Club and had a romance with a 30-year-old woman from Davao named Marilyn Young in Baguio City before he went on exile to Iceland.

Fischer’s certified Filipino heir, 7-year-old Jinky, was born in 2002 at the Saint Louis University Sacred Heart Hospital here.

The girl’s birth certificate bears the name "Robert James Fischer" as her father, but she kept her mother’s maiden name, "Young."

It's quite remarkable. Read more in Why Bobby Fischer loved RP, Filipinos. (Thanks again to Manny for pointing me to this article).

And we're a little late with these but here are obits from The Times and in The Guardian (by L. Barden).