Bobby Fischer Against the World: The tortured genius behind the chess grand master

Bobby Fischer Against the World: The tortured genius behind the chess grand master

March 3, 2011

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This engrossing documentary by Liz Garbus examines Bobby Fischer's tumultuous career as the world's greatest chess grand master and the tortured genius that might have turned him into a paranoid reclusive. The film's finest moments come during an analysis and chronicling of Fischer's renowned, and at times precarious, televised Cold War showdown with Russian chess master Boris Spassky and the impact it had on the game's rise in popularity. But the documentary also tries to crack the mystery that was Bobby Fischer, the man. Though always a bit eccentric (as most geniuses tend to be), Fischer didn't become a volatile and loony anti-Semite until later years. Friends, colleagues, and historians try to piece together what happened.

Chris Joseph

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