After nearly nine months in a Japanese prison cell, the former chess world champion Bobby Fischer appeared today to be on the verge of freedom - but Japan’s government wasn’t immediately conceding defeat.

In a major breakthrough for Mr Fischer, who is being held for allegedly travelling on a revoked US passport, Iceland’s Parliament last night granted Mr Fischer full Icelandic citizenship, opening the way for him to leave Japan for that country.

Masako Suzuki, one of his lawyers, said that she expected he would be released within the week. "Unless something very unexpected happens, that would be the natural course of events," she said.

Iceland is where Mr Fischer won the world championship in 1972, defeating Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in a classic Cold War showdown that propelled him to international stardom.

Bolstered by the news, supporters visited him at the immigration detention center where he remains in custody on the outskirts of Tokyo.

Miyoko Watai, his long-time companion, said he was "very happy" after hearing the news.

Chieko Nono, the Japanese Justice Minister, told reporters that if Mr Fischer has been granted Icelandic citizenship, it would be "legally possible to deport him to that country".

"We will consider (the possibility) and make an appropriate decision," she said on TV Tokyo.

Since his arrest in July at Tokyo’s Narita airport, Fischer has been fighting an order that he be deported to the United States, where he is wanted for violating international sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a high-profile, and lucrative, exhibition match there.

The 62-year-old eccentric says he wants to unilaterally renounce his US citizenship, and has asked for political refugee status and announced that he intends to marry Watai, who heads Japan’s chess federation.

None of the moves swayed Japanese officials, however, who took an increasingly hard-line position with him.

His prospects of freedom took a turn for the better this month, when a delegation of Icelandic supporters visited him and pushed officials to allow his release. Iceland’s government granted him a special passport, and, when Tokyo indicated that wasn’t enough, yesterday Icelandic MPs granted him full citizenship.

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