( CNN ) -- The body of chess legend Bobby Fischer was exhumed Monday in Iceland , law enforcement officials have told CNN . His body was reburied shortly after DNA samples were taken , the officials said . Iceland 's supreme court ruled last month in favor of a request by Jinky Young , Fischer 's alleged daughter , to exhume his remains in order to settle a paternity question . Police in the Icelandic town of Selfoss , where Fischer is buried , say the alleged daughter is 9 years old . A doctor , a priest and other officials were present during the procedure , according to the police department in Selfoss . Fischer was 64 when he died in January 2008 . A child prodigy and chess master by the time he was 15 , Fischer achieved international fame in 1972 when he defeated chess grandmaster Boris Spassky of Russia during the height of the Cold War , becoming the world champion . The tournament was considered a symbolic battle between the two greatest powers in the world . It was held in Iceland , midway between the United States and the Soviet Union . Soviet chess masters had held the title since World War II -- until Fischer won . The victory , unequaled by an American since , was followed by tens of millions of chess fans around the world . But Fischer 's genius proved eccentric . Years after his historic win , Fischer gave up the title in 1975 and refused to defend it . He vanished and lived in a self-imposed exile for decades . He resurfaced in Yugoslavia in 1992 for a rematch against Spassky . It was another victory for Fischer , one that earned him $ 3.5 million . The U.S. government claimed Fischer 's participation had violated U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia , imposed to punish Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic , and revoked his U.S. passport . Fischer again disappeared . He was not heard from again until 2004 , when he was arrested in Japan for traveling on an expired passport . When Iceland granted Fischer citizenship in 2005 , he moved to that country and lived there until his death in a hospital .
Fischer 's alleged daughter , Jinky Young , requested a DNA test . His body was exhumed just long enough to take a DNA sample . A doctor and a priest were among those present . Fischer died in Iceland in 2008 .