"Pawn Sacrifice": Maguire & Zwick make Chess Exciting...Really!

Rating: 8/10 (24 March 2016)

Tobey Maguire is superb as the late chess phenom Bobby Fischer. It's a damn tall order to make a movie about chess compelling, but Maguire and Director Edward Zwick (TV's "thirtysomething", "The Last Samurai") manage to pull it off with panache to burn.
This is an absolutely scintillating yet ultimately sad tale of a genius who could not dig out from under an avalanche of family resentment, crippling self castigation, massive ego and unchecked mental illness following his 1972 landmark victory over Soviet arch-rival Boris Spassky. Those who know one whole helluva lot more about the "King's Game" than I maintain that this wunderkind from Brooklyn is the best the world has ever known.
Or may ever.