The US chess legend Bobby Fischer walked free from a Japanese detention centre today and left for a new life in Iceland, the scene of his defining triumph more than 30 years ago.

Mr Fischer has spent nine-months behind bars fighting the efforts of Japanese officials to deport him to the United States, where he is wanted for violating sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia, by playing an exhibition match in Belgrade in 1992.

That match was against Boris Spassky, whom the American had beaten in Iceland 20 years earlier in what was dubbed "the match of the century". Fischer's victory ended a long Soviet domination of the game and made him a hero of the Cold War. He also earned the gratitude of Iceland, for putting the small island on the international map.

Mr Fischer never played again at the top level after the Reykyavik epic, becoming a recluse with increasingly right-wing views. He has remained popular in Iceland and was only able to leave Japan after the Icelandic parliament voted this week to grant him nationality.

Sporting a long beard and baseball cap, Mr Fischer was in high spirits and characteristically defiant as he arrived at Tokyo's Narita airport - unzipping his pants and acting as though he was going to urinate on a wall.

He called Japan’s ruling party "gangsters," and said he was being hounded by the United States because it is "Jew-controlled". The remarks were reminiscent of comments made after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, which he called "wonderful news".

"I won’t be free until I get out of Japan," he told a crowd of reporters,as he waited to board a flight to Reykjavik via Copenhagen.

"This was not an arrest. It was a kidnapping cooked up by Bush and Koizumi (the Japanese prime minister). They are war criminals and should be hung."

The 62-year-old was accompanied to the airport by his fiancee, Miyoko Watai - the head of Japan’s chess association - and Iceland’s ambassador to Japan, Thordur Oskarsson.

Mr Fischer was arrested at the same Tokyo airport last July for trying to use a revoked US passport to board a flight to Manila. He claimed that his passport had been revoked illegally, and sued to block a deportation order to the United States.

Moving to Iceland does not necessarily mean, however, that Mr Fischer has beaten Washington’s effort to prosecute him on charges that carry a potential jail term of up to ten years. Iceland, like Japan, has an extradition treaty with the US.

A federal grand jury in Washington, meanwhile, is reportedly investigating possible money-laundering charges involving the former chess player, and he may face tax-related charges as well for not paying any tax on the $3.5 million reportedly earned from the 1992 match in Belgrade and Montenegro.

The Icelandic ambassador said before Mr Fischer’s release that Washington sent a "message of disappointment" to the Icelandic government over giving Fischer citizenship.

"Despite the message, the decision was put through Parliament on humanitarian grounds," Mr Oskarsson said.

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