Bobby Fischer’s former bodyguard, Saemundur Pálsson, was unable to visit the imprisoned former chess great in Japan, reports the Mainichi Daily News.
Pálsson, travelling with a small media entourage from Iceland, as well as Fischer’s fiancée Miyoko Watai, was turned away for “safety reasons” when they tried to visit the prison where Fischer is being held.
Further details were not given by officials at the Immigration Bureau Detention Centre as to why Pálsson was turned away.
Pálsson went to Japan to deliver a government-issued travel passport to Fischer in the hopes of getting Fischer released from prison.
Fischer is being held in Japan awaiting possible extradition to the US for violating UN sanctions by playing a chess match in then-Yugoslavia in 1992.
