Bobby Fischer at Narita airport before leaving for Iceland on Thursday

Narita: Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer was released from detention in Japan on Thursday, allowing him to avoid deportation to the United States and head for Iceland, which has granted him citizenship.

It was the end of an eight-month saga that began when Fischer, 62, was taken into custody in Japan last July for travelling on what US officials said was an invalid passport.

He could have faced prison and fines in the US, where he is wanted for violating sanctions against former Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there in 1992.

The US has said it was disappointed at Iceland?s decision to grant Fischer citizenship and had reiterated that it wanted him to be handed over.

Fischer sprang to fame when he won the world title in a classic Cold War encounter with Soviet champion Boris Spassky in Iceland in 1972.

The chess icon, in a dark baseball cap pulled low and a long white beard he grew in custody, was released from a detention centre in Ushiku, north east of Tokyo, and taken in an Icelandic embassy car to Narita airport.

Fischer, clad in a striped sweater and jeans, made typically outspoken statements to reporters.

?This was not an arrest, it was a kidnapping,? he said when he arrived at the airport. ?It was all cooked up between (US President George W.) Bush and (Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro) Koizumi. They are war criminals. They should both be hanged. I?m very happy to be leaving.?

He added: ?Japan is a nice country, but you have a criminal leadership.?

Fischer?s lawyer, Masako Suzuki, said the chess icon had ?smiled from the bottom of his heart when he boarded the plane?.

To fight deportation to the US, the chess master had sought refugee status, renounced his US citizenship and unveiled plans to marry his companion, Miyoko Watai, a four-time Japan women?s chess champion.

?I?m very happy, it?s like a dream,? Watai told reporters on Thursday.