She was awarded the title of
Woman International Master by
FIDE in 1997. Watai is a four-time
Japanese women's champion. She lives in Kamata ward, which is now part of
Ōta, Tokyo. In 1973, she met then
world chess champion Bobby Fischer, and visited him several times for the next three decades. Starting in 2000 they reportedly lived together in a
de facto marriage at her home. After Bobby Fischer's detention on July 13, 2004, for trying to travel with a revoked U.S. passport, she campaigned for his release. They were reportedly married in August 2004. According to an attorney representing a competing claim to Fischer's estate, the
Supreme Court of Iceland ruled in December 2009 that Watai's claim of marriage to Fischer was invalidated because of her failure to present the original of their alleged marriage certificate. However, on March 3, 2011, a district court in Iceland ruled that Miyoko Watai, as Fischer's widow and heir, was entitled to inherit his estate. It also ruled that Watai and Fischer had legally married on September 6, 2004. == References ==