UN vs. Bobby Fischer.

Bobby Fischer is, in all likelihood, the finest chess player in history. More than three decades ago he became a national hero when he defeated Soviet chess virtuoso Boris Spassky in a series of matches in Reykjavik, becoming the only American player ever to beat a Soviet grandmaster. Since then, Fischer--always known for his mercurial temperament and abundant eccentricities--has become notorious for anti-American diatribes and anti-Semitic outbursts--the latter being particularly odd, given his Jewish background.

On July 13, Fischer was detained at an airport outside Tokyo while trying to board a flight to the Philippines. He as turned over the U.S. embassy as Japan prepared to extradite him to the U.s. for trial. Shortly before a scheduled rematch against Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992, "the United Nations imposed sanctions against Yugoslavia for supporting Serbian aggression in Bosnia and Herzegonia and the United States banned is citizens from doing business there," the New York Times recalled. "Mr. Fischer ignored a formal warning from the government against playing the match, and at a news conferences spat on the letter." Washington retaliated by revoking Fisher's passport. The chess master won his rematch, collected $3.3 million and became a fugitive.

It's important to recognize that our nation never declared war on Yugoslavia or Serbia, even when Washington took part in NATO's 78-day terror bombing of Serbia in 1999 (a campaign which brought to power al-Qaeda's allies, the Kosovo Liberation Army, in Serbia's Kosovo province). Fischer may thus earn the distinction of being the first American to face criminal prosecution at the hands of our government for flouting the will of the United Nations. And the fact that some of Fischer's stated views are despicable might help set a precedent that could quickly be extended to other Americans.