Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)

I’ve watched this film twice now and my chess game still sucks. Maybe I’m bringing my queen out too early...

Searching for Bobby Fischer is a 1993 drama film directed by Steven Zaillian and starring Max Pomeranc, Joe Mantegna, Ben Kingsley and Laurence Fishburne.

The most interesting scene in Searching for Bobby Fischer for me is where 7 year old chess prodigy Josh’s (Max Pomeranc) chess teacher (Ben Kingsley) lines up a pawn, rook, knight, bishop and king in front of him and asks him to choose which piece he is. Josh replies that he is none of them, that they are just pieces.

It illustrates that Josh, more than any of the adults in the film, realises that chess is just a game. It’s a point the film makes several times, and unlike most of the emotional elements of the film which are bordering on maudlin, it’s nicely subtle. Ben Kingsley’s character pretentiously waffles on about chess being ‘art’, Josh’s father treats it like a sport and becomes obsessed with his son winning trophies, and Josh’s friend Vinnie (an underused Laurence Fishburne) uses it as a hustle in blitz games in New York’s Washington Square Park. The adults don’t get that Josh doesn’t really care about winning or losing, or art, or how he is perceived by, or perceives, his opponents. He just likes to play chess.

I like the relationship between Josh and his father (Joe Mantegna). After Josh starts seriously winning tournaments, his dad forbids him to play speed chess in the park with Vinnie because his teacher insists it’s instilling bad habits in his play style and will ruin his tournament success.

The best scene by far is where his dad also realises it’s just a game and takes Josh back to the park to play a game with Vinnie. Vinnie baulks at Josh’s first moves (he opens with a predictable tournament strategy) and tells him “play from your gut, like you used to”, so Josh does, and quickly checkmates him.

The scenes in the park are great. Young Josh discovers chess by watching Vinnie and his mates play speed chess for money and drugs. I particularly liked that when they first head over to watch the games and you see it from his mother’s perspective, the camera focuses on the money changing hands. Then we cut to Josh’s point of view, and he only sees the chess boards. The money and the hustling are irrelevant to him; he’s just fascinated by the game. It’s a great use of perspective.

I wish the film had included more of the speed chess in the park scenes (it’s obvious a lot were cut for pacing) because they are not only the best part of the film, it would have helped to explain why people keep telling Josh’s parents to not let him play in the park. There are actually very few scenes of him actually doing that.

I also like how strong little Josh is throughout the film. I usually find kids in movies annoying, but Max Pomeranc plays real—life chess whiz Josh Waitzkin with a dignity far beyond his years. I like that when his teacher tells him that in order to be the best player he must learn to hate his opponents. Josh just shrugs and says “but I don’t.” His teacher then insists that his idol, Bobby Fischer, hated his opponents. Josh tells him “well I’m not him.”

Unfortunately the film jettisons the subtlety a few times. Probably the worst instance is where Josh’s dad moves the chess trophies from the mantelpiece into Josh’s bedroom (the film makes a point earlier of showing his father gloating over the trophies with Josh nowhere in sight). This scene would have worked far better without any dialogue. But no, because we audiences are morons we get a tearful line from Joe Mantegna, “these are yours now, son.”

We also get a ridiculous scene where father and son stand in the rain having an emotional conversation after Josh deliberately loses a game because he’s terrified that if he becomes a chess champion everyone will hate him. The impact of the scene is diminished somewhat because they stand under a torrential downpour when, moments earlier, they were safely inside a building. It’s sledgehammer subtlety that just doesn’t work.

The film is at its best when it’s not dishing up the emotional manipulation with a soup ladle, and thankfully the underlying theme that young Josh is more emotionally mature than most of the adults pushing and pulling him in various directions is done with some subtext, and so becomes the film’s strongest point.

The best moment in this regard is during the final game where Josh faces off against his nemesis – another chess-whizz kid – in a tournament grand final. Josh, seeing 12 moves ahead and knowing he’s won, offers his opponent a hand shake (signalling a draw) and his eager father and teacher watching on through a video monitor both reel at first asking “what the hell is he doing?” Josh knows he has won the game, so he doesn’t feel the need to ‘hate’ his opponent by humiliating him.

It could have been a little less ‘coming to terms with things’, but all in all Searching for Bobby Fischer is a strong film with some decent performances. Two hours well spent.