'There are more 40-move games in Chess than there are stars in the galaxy.'

Rating: Null/10 (20 January 2016)

Fine movie, very well produced and acted. For me it brought back fond memories of the summer of 1972 when so many of us were playing chess at lunch and following the progress of the historic match.
Chess is a very complex game, as Father Lombardy says at one point, "There are more 40-move games in Chess than there are stars in the galaxy." Whether that is precisely accurate or not I don't know, but regardless it is such a complex game, and a good player has to be thinking a number of moves in advance, those who master the game must have a great intellect. At least for chess.
Bobby Fischer was a complex and troubled man, for all his chess genius he had a hard time getting on in everyday life, and when it came time to play for the world chess championship had a number of demands otherwise he wouldn't play. In fact once the world championship match was on he simply failed to show up for game 2, making it a forfeit and gave Spassky a 2-0 lead.
During this time in history Russians dominated world chess and it seems only Fischer thought he had a chance to win. While all grandmasters learn all the moves in all the best games of the past, and Fischer did too, his genius was in being able to invent new openings and novel strategies as a game progressed. Spassky could not cope with that, even though he was clearly the best Russian he simply did not have the imagination and creativeness of Fischer. After the 0-2 start Fischer went 12 1/2 to 6 1/2 to destroy Spassky to win the world title. Fischer's game 6 is widely considered as the best chess match ever played.
Good biopic of a brilliant chess player who quickly went downhill afterwards and died in 2008 in a foreign country. Tobey Maguire , who also produced, is Bobby Fischer. Liev Schreiber is Boris Spassky.