USHIKU, Japan Mar 23, 2005 — Chess legend Bobby Fischer was freed Thursday after nearly nine months in a Japanese detention center and immediately headed for the airport to board a flight to his new home, Iceland.

Fischer, sporting a beard and a baseball cap pulled down low over his face, left the immigration detention center in this city on Tokyo's outskirts early Thursday.

He was accompanied by his fiancee, Miyoko Watai, the head of Japan's chess association, and officials from the Icelandic Embassy. He was scheduled to catch an afternoon flight to Denmark en route to Iceland.