Pawn Sacrifice 2014

     The time period is more than 40 years ago at the height of the Cold War.  Bobby Fischer was born on March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois.  He taught himself to play chess as a young boy and later Carmine Nigro instructed him.  His first professional chess game was in 1956 and a win at the age of 13 against Donald Bryne.  His first game against Boris Spassky was in 1972.  They played the world championship in 1972 with a win for Fischer.

     There is a lot of background information about Bobby but not very much about Spassky.  Supposedly, the quirks exhibited by Bobby were not as pronounced in 1972 as portrayed in this film?  I think the chess scenes needed to be shorter because there are a lot of scenes of other players matching his moves to follow the game?  The press made the championship seem like it was the Soviet Union against the United States and not two players in a chess game.  This put extra pressure on Fischer and his vulnerable mental state.  3* (This movie is OK)

115 min, Bio directed by Edward Zwick with Tobey Maguire, Live Schreiber, Peter Sarsgaard, Edward Zinoviev, Alexandre Gorchkov, Lily Rabe, Robin Weigert.

Note:  Imdb 7.0 out of 10, 71% critic 67% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Evert 2*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Reykjavik, Iceland; Los Angeles, California.  Bobby Fischer is still considered to be one of the best chess players alive.  He was sidelined by his fears and phobias due to his condition as a paranoid schizophrenic.  Some reviewers have mentioned chess game errors in this film.  Bobby Fischer Against the World of 2011 contains the same material as this film.