DENVER -- A national chess master, convicted in Colorado on child sex assault, has been arrested in Belize, Fort Collins police said Monday.

Robert Michael Snyder, 55, had been a fugitive from justice since August 2008, according to police.

Snyder is a convicted child molester who served time on two misdemeanor counts of unlawful sexual contact and one felony count of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust.

Snyder was released from jail on Aug. 24, 2008, and was to start a 10-year probationary period requiring him to register as a sex offender every 90 days.

Following his release, Snyder failed to register as a sex offender and did not meet with his probation officer and had been a fugitive ever since, according to police spokeswoman Rita Davis.

Snyder was taken into custody by Belize police last Friday in Belize City, Belize.

Authorities were tipped that Snyder was living in Belize under an assumed name after he was featured on a Nov. 28 episode of "America's Most Wanted." The tipster said he was tutoring kids in chess at a Belize City elementary school.

Snyder is being deported from Belize and will be taken into custody by U.S. Marshals upon his return to the United States and will be transported to the Larimer County Detention Center in Fort Collins.

Friends said Snyder was a chess prodigy who began learning the game when he was 12. He opened a school for young students in the early 1980s and his students entered weekend tournaments, sometimes requiring them to sleep over at his home in Fort Collins.

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