February 7, 2016 -- In an epic chess match between a genius and a madman, the madman, being unpredictable, won, and America celebrated a great victory against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but the madman could care less about all that.

Robert James “Bobby” Fischer may have been the best chess player who ever lived. I knew that he was crazy in his later years, but this historical drama indicates he had significant mental problems in his youth, too. Tobey Maguire (of the earlier “Spider-Man” films) plays the mercurial American chess genius around the time of his famous world championship match against Boris Spassky (played by Liev Schreiber of “Spotlight”) of the Soviet Union.

This 1972 chess match in Iceland made Fischer and Spassky among the most famous people in the world at the time. The sixth game of that match is considered by some to be the greatest chess game ever played. This movie doesn't really show the game, rather, it shows the aura of chess and the way the players live for this game. It shows the dedication the players have, and their narrow focus. It also shows their amazing abilities to memorize multiple games, moves and strategies.

The movie opens during the 1972 world championship match as Fischer forfeits the second game, staying in his hotel room searching for electronic listening devices, dismantling the telephone, searching inside the frames of wall paintings and other places. He makes numerous demands for money and special playing conditions. He throws temper tantrums.

Then the story goes back to Fischer's troubled childhood, which helps to explain some of his paranoia (even paranoids have real spies watching them sometimes). Fischer's mother, Regina (Robin Weigert of “The Sessions”) was under investigation by the FBI for Communist activities when Bobby was growing up. The real problem with Fischer, however, is he has no life beyond the game of chess. In a final confrontation with his mother, he basically tells her to leave him alone. He wants quiet so he can study chess. She moves out.

In the film, young Bobby Fischer (played by actors Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick and Aiden Lovekamp in Fischer's childhood and teemage years) seems to be very sensitive to noises and is bothered by a number of different sounds. Chess, at the highest levels, requires an extreme amount of concentration, as players try to see as many moves ahead as possible, and the number of possible moves, especially early in the game, can be in the billions.

Fischer, who became the youngest American chess champion in history, and the youngest chess grandmaster in history (up to that time) also became the youngest ever to qualify for the world championship, but he left the competition in disgust because he believed the Soviets were playing as a team, using strategies designed to prevent him from getting a shot at the world chess championship. He wanted to become the youngest person ever to win it.

Along comes a very patriotic lawyer, Paul Marshall (played by Michael Stuhlbarg of “Trumbo”) who gets Fischer back into competition. Marshall has Washington connections. Both he and the government want Fischer to beat the Soviets. Joined by his old mentor, chess master and priest, William Lombardy (Peter Sarsgaard of “Black Mass”) Fischer sets out on a quest to beat the best player in the world, Spassky.

Although Spassky is more normal than Fischer, the film shows he has some quirks similar to those of Fischer as he demands that the chair he sits on in the championship match be x-rayed. He thinks he feels a vibration in it. As Spassky becomes unnerved, Fischer gains confidence. It is a fascinating duel between these two high-strung geniuses.

In the end, however, it seems Fischer is just a one-trick pony. Apart from chess, Fischer seems stunted as a human being. Both players are being used by their governments. Fischer, as noted in the end credits, became crazier as he got older, and ended up being a fugitive from the country which once hailed him as a hero. It is an interesting tale, and a sad one, about the thin line between genius and madness. This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2016 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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