What an amazing movie. This movie lacks a lot of media attention probably because of its subject. Chess doesn't get a lot of attention these days because a lot of people find it boring. Calling this movie boring would be the biggest lie of 2015 though. It is one of the best performances, if not the best, from Tobey Maguire I have seen so far. And he has a phenomenal adversary in Liev Schreiber. The movie did not get very creative in its story, but chose a more literal setup from the actual events. This makes for a straight on drama movie without any melodramatic or emotional depth exaggerating the facts, but that is certainly for the best.

Plays some nice moves but never reaches checkmate. I enjoyed the film but felt it skimped on some of the more interesting aspects of Fischer's personal life which are only hinted at during the film's close. It also lacked tension during his chess games with Spassky. Oh, and isn't it time somebody made a film from that classic game, Kerplunk? Imagine the tension as each straw is pulled and the troubling sound of clattering marbles. It should be called 'The Last Straw' and feature Jason Statham and Tom Hardy as the 'hard men' of the game, each battling for their stake in the East End of London. Or is that Monopoly?

Even today, in the world of chess, it is most likely that you will hear about it in the mainstream media when there are scandals. Sometimes these involve trivial things like wearing jeans, and sometimes they involve really serious incidents, such as grandmasters who are bullied to the point of committing suicide. The fact that even in earlier years the actual game often played only a secondary role is demonstrated by the story of US world champion Bobby Fischer, who was a mixture of genius and madness. He brought about many innovations in chess, but at the same time repeatedly attracted attention due to his mental health problems and questionable beliefs. The story is definitely tailor-made for a film adaptation as a kind of psychological drama. And “Pawn Sacrifice” certainly has some good moments. For example, Tobey Maguire is thoroughly convincing in the lead role, and Fischer’s paranoia is visualized very well. At the same time, the film is a little too reliant on genre conventions for my liking. What I liked least, however, were the chess sequences. These could certainly have been visualized better to enable viewers who have at least a basic understanding of the game to participate. And a few more explanations would have been helpful, such as why Fischer's c4 in the sixth game of the World Championship was so surprising. Ultimately, “Pawn Sacrifice” is a solid biopic, but it relies too heavily on genre conventions and is certainly not suited to attracting new fans to the sport. In that regard, “The Queen's Gambit” on Netflix did a much better job.

I've always liked how risky Fisher's style was but he (or his mental illness) alienated everybody close.