Bobby Fisher Against the World (EIFF)
“Tonight we have breaking news in the Watergate scandal, but first, Bobby Fisher”
There was a moment in the world when chess-player Bobby Fisher was the most important news article, even more than the Cold War. A genius unmatched at the young age of 15 become the youngest ever US chess champion and continued on as he captured millions of people all around the world as he went on to become the World Chess Champion.
The HBO produced documentary flows very easily, it’s well made and paced and has excellent insights from people in Bobby Fisher’s life who unveil a story of how overwhelmed with attention the chess player became and how it affected his famous World Championship match with Boris Spassky of the USSR to his sudden ‘Wilderness years’ and attempted return which suddenly spiralled into a sad state of events which show us that Bobby Fisher had mental health issues and comments on his late passing.
Great leaders and strategists have used chess as the ultimate game of war to help them make sense of things however, in Fisher’s case we see how chess was a part of him – despite footage of him claiming that he’s not a chess genius but ‘a genius that plays chess’ he allowed the confines of the game to be the way he chose to understand all that was around him. Essentially a recluse it was chess that kept Fisher connected with the world.
The documentary is a good watch, as someone who is not all that aware of chess I can say that I walked away only feeling interest in Bobby Fisher and not about chess (sort of depends what you want a documentary to do for you, only in it for the story being told or to introduce you to something new?). It is effective in that, no knowledge of chess or chess history is needed to be able to understand, follow and be interested in the subject matter but it might affect how much you enjoy it.