Bobby Fischer - "Pawn Sacrifice"

Decent historical movie. ... When I was a kid I was captivated by chess, and was captivated by books about Bobby Fischer, child chess prodigy. "Pawn Sacrifice" chronicles his life up until 1972 and his championship tournament against Boris Spassky, one of the greatest matches of all time. It's a bit light on the chess moves, emphasis on the drama but still does a lot to capture the magic of the game.

The film also doesn't shy away from Bobby Fischer: the rather abrasive and unlikeable adult, who suffered from mental illness and in his later years became immersed in the cultic Worldwide Church of God and a quagmire of anti-semitism (despite his Jewish roots) and conspiracy-theorizing -- his life was predominantly an unhappy one, despite his fame. All that being acknowledged, there is no denying the genius of his game, as well as that incredible moment in history when, in the midst of Vietnam, Watergate, and the Cold War, an American citizen challenged the greatest chessmasters of Russia and won.