Searching For Bobby Fischer
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Searching for Bobby Fischer'', released in the United Kingdom as ''Innocent Moves'', is a 1993 American
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
written and directed by
Steven Zaillian Steven Ernest Bernard Zaillian (born January 30, 1953) is an Armenian-American screenwriter, film director and producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for his screenplay '' Schindler's List'' (1993) and has earn ...
in his directorial debut. Starring Max Pomeranc in his film debut, Joe Mantegna, Joan Allen,
Ben Kingsley Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Ben Kingsley, various accolades throughout Ben Kingsley on screen and stage, his career spanning fi ...
, and
Laurence Fishburne Laurence John Fishburne III (born July 30, 1961) is an American actor. Throughout his career, he has gained recognition for his roles on stage and screen as militant and authoritative characters. List of awards and nominations received by Laur ...
, it is based on the life of prodigy
chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
player Joshua Waitzkin, played by Pomeranc, and adapted from the book of the same name by Joshua's father, Fred Waitzkin. The film was nominated for Best Cinematography in the 66th Academy Awards.


Plot

Seven-year-old Josh Waitzkin becomes fascinated with the
chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
players in New York City's Washington Square Park. His mother, Bonnie, is initially uncomfortable with his interest, as the games in the park are rife with illegal gambling and homeless players, but eventually allows Josh to play a game with a disheveled player (who charges $5 to play the game). Although Josh loses, Bonnie is amazed that he understands the rules of chess, despite having never been taught them. Another park player, Vinnie Livermore, alerts Bonnie to Josh's advanced talent in the game. Josh's father, Fred, asks to play a game with his son and swiftly defeats him. It emerges, however, that Josh deliberately lost to spare his father's feelings. When Fred prompts Josh to play a rematch honestly, Josh effortlessly defeats him. A friendship blooms between Josh and Vinnie, who becomes a mentor. Fred requests the services of Bruce Pandolfini as a formal chess tutor for his son. Bruce takes an immediate liking to Josh, but disapproves of many of Josh's maverick tactics, adopted from Vinnie's tutelage. In particular, Bruce disapproves of Josh's tendency to bring out his
queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...
too early, and warns Fred that such careless tactics will weaken Josh's performance in organized chess tournaments. Against Bruce's advice, Fred enrolls Josh in a chess tournament. Josh wins, the first in a slew of tournament victories for him. Fred develops an unhealthy obsession with Josh's chess career, causing friction between Fred, Bonnie, and Josh's school teacher. Josh, upset by the changes he has noticed in his father, begins losing tournaments. As a remedy, Fred dedicates Josh entirely to Bruce's teaching regimen, and at Bruce's request, Josh is forbidden from playing any more games with Vinnie. Bruce's relationship with Josh grows cold and misanthropic as Bruce seeks to harden Josh's competitiveness. When Bruce berates Josh by showering him in " meaningless Xeroxes" of a certificate that Bruce had previously told Josh was a special award, Bonnie kicks Bruce out of the house. Fred and Josh reconcile, with Fred assuring Josh that he loves his son, even if he is not a chess champion. And when Josh is allowed to resume playing chess with Vinnie, his enthusiasm for the game returns. Josh attends the National Chess Championship, where he and Bruce reconcile. In the final tournament game, Josh is paired against Jonathan Poe, another young prodigy whose talent has intimidated Josh. The game is a back-and-forth struggle: Josh's use of Vinnie's reckless tactics causes him to lose his queen early in the game, but he follows up with more tactics to win Jonathan's queen. The game continues into a complex endgame. After an overconfident move from Jonathan, Josh remembers Bruce's disciplined teachings, and uses them to calculate a path to an assured victory. Before executing the sequence, he offers his opponent a draw. Jonathan, insulted, and not realizing his own predicament, refuses. Josh plays out a winning
combination In mathematics, a combination is a selection of items from a set that has distinct members, such that the order of selection does not matter (unlike permutations). For example, given three fruits, say an apple, an orange and a pear, there are ...
and wins the game.


Development

In 1972, American chess champion
Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
traveled to Reykjavík, Iceland, for a match in the World Chess Championship 1972 with
Boris Spassky Boris Vasilyevich Spassky (; January 30, 1937 – February 27, 2025) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigra ...
. Fred Waitzkin was smitten by the game as he was swept up in the nationwide excitement at the time, and inspired by Fischer's charisma, began to study the strategy of chess. He realized he lacked the necessary talent to be a champion and left off, but his interest was revived a decade later when his son showed interest and talent.


Cast

Some famous chess players have cameos in the film: Anjelina Belakovskaia, Joel Benjamin, Roman Dzindzichashvili, Kamran Shirazi, along with the real Joshua Waitzkin, Bruce Pandolfini, Vincent Livermore, and Russell Garber.
Chess master A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pres ...
Asa Hoffmann is played by
Austin Pendleton Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. Pendleton is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen, whose six-decade career has included roles in films i ...
; the real Hoffmann was disappointed with his portrayal by Pendleton. Chess expert Poe McClinton, still a park regular, is seen throughout the film. Pal Benko was supposed to be in the film but his part was cut out. Waitzkin's real mother and sister also have cameos.
Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
appears in newsreel footage. The Russian player in the park (played by Vasek Simek) who holds up the sign "", was based on the real life of Israel Zilber, who would regularly sleep in the park, awakening only for a "five dollar game" that he would demand in a Russian accent (reduced to "two dollar game" during slow times if requested) and which he would invariably win. Zilber also played the
Queen's Gambit The Queen's Gambit is the chess opening that starts with the moves: :1. d4 d5 :2. c4 It is one of the oldest openings and is still commonly played today. It is traditionally described as a '' gambit'' because White appears to sacrifice the ...
as White. Zilber, Latvian Chess Champion in 1958, defeated the teenage
Mikhail Tal Mikhail Tal (9 November 1936 â€“ 28 June 1992) was a Soviet and Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as Comparison of top chess players throughout history, one ...
in 1952, and during most of the 1980s was homeless and regarded as one of the top players in Washington Square Park. Waitzkin's main chess foil character in the film, Jonathan Poe (played by Michael Nirenberg), is based on
chess prodigy Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a square board consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to ...
Jeff Sarwer. When Sarwer was asked what he felt about his portrayal in the film, he stated:
At the end of the day it was a Hollywood film, a work of fiction, and it helped popularize chess more so that's always a good thing. But I have a lot of distance to the actual book and film, the way I was portrayed was nothing at all like how I was in real life so what's the point in comparing myself to it?


Sarwer versus Waitzkin match

At the end of the film in the final tournament, Josh is seen playing opponent Jonathan Poe. In actual life, Josh's opponent was Jeff Sarwer, who was younger. In September 1985, Josh first played and was defeated by Jeff at the Manhattan Chess Club. In November of the same year, Josh returned to the Manhattan Chess Club and beat him in a rematch. The film depicts their third match in the 1986 US Primary Championship. Near the end of the game, where Josh offers Poe a draw, Poe rejects the offer, the play continues and Poe loses. Sarwer rejected the draw offer in the real-world game as well, but the play continued to a draw due to bare kings. Under tournament tie-breaking rules, Waitzkin was determined to have played more challenging opponents during the overall competition and was awarded first place, but they were declared US Primary School co-champions. Sarwer went on to win the 1986 World Championship Under-10 (Boys), with his sister Julia winning the World Championship Under-10 (Girls).


Poe versus Waitzkin endgame

The diagram depicts the game position in the film, with Waitzkin playing the black pieces, before Waitzkin offers Poe the draw. This position did not occur in the real Sarwer–Waitzkin game; it was contrived by Waitzkin and Pandolfini for the film. The following moves are executed: :1... gxf6 2. Bxf6 Rc6+ 3. Kf5 Rxf6+ 4. Nxf6 Bxf6 5. Kxf6 ?? Nd7+ 6. Kf5 Nxe5 7. Kxe5 In the October 1995 issue of '' Chess Life'', Grandmaster Larry Evans stated that the position and sequence were : Poe (playing White) could still have drawn the game by playing 7.h5 instead. Furthermore, though not mentioned in the issue: (i) The rook exchange 3...Rxf6+ is not a brilliancy but instead loses; 3... Nc4., 3...Nd7 and 3...Bxf6 hold the draw. (ii) the modern Lomonosov 7-piece
endgame tablebase In chess, the endgame tablebase, or simply the tablebase, is a computerised database containing precalculated evaluations of chess endgame, endgame positions. Tablebases are used to analyse finished games, as well as by chess engines to evaluate ...
shows White has a win after 4...Bxf6 with 5.Re2+, sacrificing White's rook for Black's bishop, and queening safely. :7... a5 8. h5 a4 9. h6 a3 10. h7 a2 11. h8=Q a1=Q+ 12. Kf5 Qxh8 White resigned.


Alternate endgame

An alternate endgame position had been composed by Pal Benko. It was to have been used in the film, but was rejected the day before the scene was filmed because it did not use the theme that Josh had rashly overused his queen.
In this position, Black should play: :1... Ne2 after which White is in zugzwang; he must play either 2.Bg3, losing the bishop to 2...Nxg3+, or 2.Bg1, allowing 2...Ng3.


Reception

Both the film and book received positive reviews from critics. Waitzkin's book was praised by grandmaster
Nigel Short Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, columnist, coach and commentator who has been the FIDE Director for Chess Development since September 2022. Short earned the title of grandmaster at the ...
, and journalist Edward Winter, who called it "a delightful book" in which "the topics retreated with an acuity and grace that offer the reviewer something quotable on almost every page." Screenwriter and playwright
Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...
called the book "well written" and "captivating". The film has a 98% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 8.00/10. The site's consensus reads: "As sensitive as the young man at its center, ''Searching for Bobby Fischer'' uses a prodigy's struggle to find personal balance as the background for a powerfully moving drama." On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
the film has a score of 89 based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences surveyed by
CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...
graded the film "A" on scale of A to F.
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
gave the film a score of four stars (out of four), calling it "a film of remarkable sensitivity and insight", adding, "by the end of he film we have learned €¦a great deal about human nature." James Berardinelli gave the film three stars (out of four), calling it "an intensely fascinating movie capable of involving those who are ignorant about chess as well as those who love it." Bobby Fischer himself never saw the film and claimed that it violated his privacy by using his name without his permission. Fischer never received any compensation from the film, calling it "a monumental swindle". The film was nominated for Best Cinematography ( Conrad L. Hall) at the 66th Academy Awards for 1993 but lost to Janusz Kaminski who won for ''
Schindler's List ''Schindler's List'' is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the historical novel '' Schindler's Ark'' (1982) by Thomas Keneally. The film follows ...
'', which was also written by Steven Zaillian. It won the category at the American Society of Cinematographers the same year. The film also ranked No. 96 in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers.


References


Further reading

* "20 years of Searching", '' Chess Life'', August 2013, pp. 38–41


External links

* * * *
Updated article from 2006 by Eamonn O'Neill
{{Bobby Fischer 1993 films 1993 children's films American biographical drama films American children's drama films Chess in the United States Films about chess Films set in New York City Films shot in Toronto 1990s biographical drama films 1993 in chess Bobby Fischer Paramount Pictures films Films directed by Steven Zaillian Films with screenplays by Steven Zaillian Films scored by James Horner Films produced by Scott Rudin Biographical films about sportspeople Biographical films about educators Cultural depictions of chess players 1993 directorial debut films 1993 drama films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films English-language biographical drama films