More on Bobby Fischer’s Estate

I previously blogged about the exhumation of Bobby Fischer’s body to determine whether or not he is the father of Jinky Young. While we still don’t know the results of the paternity test, we do know the possible distributions of Fischer’s estate.

If Jinky is Fischer’s daughter, and Ms. Watai (a Japanese woman who claims to be Fischer’s wife) is found to be his widow, then Jinky would receive 2/3 of his estate and Ms. Watai would receive the remainder. If Jinky is not Fischer’s daughter, Ms. Watai would receive everything. If the Icelandic court rejects Ms. Watai as Fischer’s widow, Fischer’s two nephews would receive his entire estate.

Fischer’s estate is estimated to be worth $1-2 million. Uncertainty exists because the United States government has claims against his estate for taxes and penalties (for playing a chess game in Yugoslavia while it was under a United States trade embargo).

See Dylan Loeb McClain, For Bobby Fischer, the Drama Won’t Die, N.Y. Times, July 23, 2010.

Special thanks to Margaret Elizabeth Perry (Texas Tech School of Law graduate, May 2010) for bringing this to my attention.