Tokyo: Japan is considering deporting former world chess champion Bobby Fischer but he could be sent to a third country and not the US, where he is wanted for defying sanctions by playing a match in Yugoslavia in 1992.

A Japanese immigration official declined, however, to comment on Wednesday on a report that Fischer, the only US citizen ever to become world chess champion, was seeking political asylum in a third country.

“We are in the midst of the procedures for deportation,” the official said.

The web site ChessBase.com reported that Fischer, 61, was appealing for help in the form of an immediate offer of asylum from a friendly third country through his friend Miyoko Watai, head of the Japan Chess Association.

The GM has eluded the US government since 1992, when he played in a match in Yugoslavia. That move brought him into conflict with the US authorities, since economic sanctions against Yugoslavia were in force at the time. Fischer was detained at Tokyo’s Narita airport last week. He was suspected of holding an invalid passport when he tried to leave for the Philippines. If sent to the US, Fischer could face prison and a fine.

Asked about Fischer in Washington on Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said it would be “normal practice” to invalidate the passport of someone under indictment.

But he added: “I don’t know his particular passport situation. I wouldn’t be able to talk about it.”