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It does seem odd for someone to get in trouble for 'merely' playing
chess, but remember that economic sanctions are supposed to serve an
important purpose--namely, as a last-ditch effort to avoid a war. The US
(acting in concert with other countries, hooray) had imposed such
sanctions against Yugoslavia, Fischer knew about it and blew it off.

I'll grant you, of course, that the military actions Clinton eventually
resorted to would probably have been necessary even if Fischer had
complied. (In fact, forget 'probably', of course they would have 
been necessary.) But that will always be true of any single individual who
defects from the program, and if we make a regular practice of not
enforcing economic sanctions after we declare them, then we're not really
making as much effort to avoid war as we could. And that would be a Bad
Thing.