Pawn Sacrifice

A movie with several underlying themes, Pawn Sacrifice is an engaging and suspenseful film certain to capture the attention of movie-goers of all types. The film focuses on the real life story of Bobby Fischer and portrays his youth and early adulthood struggle to become the World Chess Champion. Actual footage intermingled throughout the film lends an air of authenticity to this biographical tale. Besides the chess focus of the movie, the stress and strain of the Cold War are an underlying theme that is well addressed and explains in large part how Bobby Fischer became a super star of sorts across the entire country, and a name recognized worldwide. Viewers follow Fischer and his teammate around the country as he quickly defeats enough opponents to become a threat to the reigning chess champion Boris Spassky, whom he must defeat to become world champion. Besides the general difficulty of chess and the Cold War, the third main theme of the film focuses on Fischer’s declining mental health- although he is an undeniably gifted chess player, he becomes more and more antisocial, erratic, and demanding. His behavior causes problems with his relationships among his friends and family. Pawn Sacrifice begins with a troubled boy, follows his fascination with chess into something more engrossing, and ultimately shows how an international star ended up after his meteoric success. The film shows what is possible with a single minded goal in spite of one's shortcomings or oppositions.