After nearly nine months in a Japanese detention cell, chess legend Bobby Fischer appeared to have cleared the final hurdle on his way to freedom yesterday -- but Japan's government wasn't immediately conceding defeat.
In a major breakthrough for Fischer, who is being held for allegedly traveling on a revoked US passport, Iceland's Parliament on Monday granted the former world champion and notorious eccentric full citizenship, opening the way for him to leave Japan for that country.
Masako Suzuki, one of Fischer's lawyers, said she expected Fischer would be released within the week.
"Unless something very unexpected happens, that would be the natural course of events," she said.
Iceland is where Fischer won the world championship in 1972, defeating Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in a classic Cold War showdown that propelled Fischer to international stardom.
Bolstered by the news, supporters visited Fischer at the immigration detention center where he remained in custody on the outskirts of Tokyo. Miyoko Watai, his longtime companion, said Fischer was "very happy" after hearing the news.
Justice Minister Chieko Nono told reporters that if 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.
Following his arrest in July at Tokyo's Narita airport, Fischer had fought an order that he be deported to the US, where he is wanted for violating international sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a high-profile, and lucrative, exhibition match there.
Fischer, 62, has since lived up to his reputation as unpredictable -- he has said he wants to unilaterally renounce his US citizenship, demanded 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 hardline position with him.
Fischer's fight took a major 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, on Monday granted him full citizenship.
The process still required a formal presidential signature, which was expected later yesterday, Suzuki said.
"It is clear that there is no need to detain him anymore," Suzuki said. "He wants to leave Japan immediately."
Fischer became an icon when he dethroned Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim the US' first world chess championship in more than a century. But a few years later he refused to defend the title against another Soviet, Anatoly Karpov.
He then fell into obscurity before resurfacing to play an exhibition rematch against Spassky in the former Yugoslavia in 1992.
Fischer won the rematch on the resort island of Sveti Stefan. But the match was played in violation of US sanctions imposed to punish then-president Slobodan Milosevic. If convicted, Fischer, who hasn't been to the US since then, could face 10 years in prison and a fine of US$250,000.
It wasn't immediately clear if going to Iceland would help Fischer avoid extradition to the US if he is charged.
The two countries have an extradition treaty.
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