Great documentary on a tortured genius.The story of Bobby Fischer, arguably the greatest chess player who ever lived. Examines his growing up, his emergence as chess genius at a very young age, his ascendancy to being World Chess Champion (at the age of 29), he's decline, disappearance, re-emergence, becoming a fugitive from US justice and his later years. The highlight is the famous showdown against Boris Spassky for the World Championship, in Reykjavik in 1972. Demonstrates well his genius, neuroses and general personality.Also particularly interesting is that there are very good attempts to explain his personality problems and mental issues. Sadly, genius and insanity often go hand in hand...

For a person that doesn't know much about chess and only knows some of the names and some of the basics about chess this is actually quite an interesting documentary and story.Bobby Fischer is in many ways a very odd person, very intellectual and kind of obsessed with chess and I don't know what it is, if he is giving a damn about how people and the press sees him or doesn't give a damn about it. But the fact is that he is very focused and into the game and that makes all the attention of a high profiled game between him (representing USA) and Spassky (representing Russia) too much for hi in many ways.It was an interesting and for most parts very factional based documentary about Bobby Fisher also for one like me that doesn't know much about chess.

Bobby Fischer Against the World (2010) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Another very good documentary from HBO, this one taking a look at the life and career of Bobby Fischer, the chess genius who rose to fame at an early age and really put the sport on the U.S. map when he defeated the Russian Spassky in 1972. Fischer's rise was quickly put out when he refused to defend his championship and the genius spent the rest of his life trying to hide from the public and apparently driving closer to madness. David Edmonds, Dr. Anthony Saidy, Susan Polgar, Henry Kissinger, David Shenk, Malcolm Gladwell and Larry Evans are among the many people interviewed here as they try to explain what made Fischer a genius but also what eventually got him kick out of America. This is a very fascinating documentary because it really seems to be trying to tell the truth and not just sugar-coat some rather troubled moments in this man's life. It's clear that he was a genius at the game of chess and the documentary makes an interesting choice showing other great minds of the game who ended their lives in a mental breakdown. The majority of the running time is devoted to the Spassky match as we get a game-to-game breakdown of events, shown the important matches and also the various controversies that Fischer stirred up at the time. So, in reality, even in his greatest moments Fischer was still delivering controversy and upsetting people. Fans of chess, Fischer or those just interesting in great documentaries should really be entertained by this thing. The documentary doesn't really explain the rules of chess so some might want to read up a bit before going into the film but even if you know nothing the story is just so fascinating where it really doesn't matter.

Regarded by most as the greatest and most important chess player that ever lived, Fischer's prodigious achievements on the black and white board marked a renaissance for the game of chess, introducing it to the American mainstream and challenging many of the traditional approaches to chess strategy."Bobby Fischer Against The World" is the latest offering from Liz Garbus, the Oscar nominated documentary director and producer, and charts Fisher's rise to chess immortality, before his fall into madness.In a similar air to Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind, Garbus takes us on a journey into the mind of a genius, wrestling with the very limit of human ability. As is common in such stories, individuals with an extraordinary ability often lack substantially in others and Garbus explores this idea throughout, contrasting his genius on the board to his insanity off it. Fischer's life was dominated by chess. As a young boy he did little else, rarely socializing with others, preferring to sit in his room, studying the game and playing matches against himself. The culmination of Fischer's lifelong purist for chess greatness, came in the 1972 World Chess Championships, where he was poised to play Boris Spassky, the three-year reigning world champion.Spassky was the most recent product of the Soviet chess machine, who had historically dominated the game. Fischer represented the first American to pose any real threat to the Soviet Union's crown.The conflict on the board, had wider significance, since at that time the political regimes of America and the Soviet Union were in fierce conflict, culminating in the Cold War. "Fischer was representing not only himself, but the entire free world" recalls previous World Champion and chess legend Alan Kasparov; "for the communist regime, keeping the crown was very important ideologically, this communist state took over chess, to use it as proof for intellectual superiority over decedent west".The match with Spassky would later become known as 'The Game of The Century', characterized by Fischer's genius play and unyielding demands for better playing standards and higher prize funds.This documentary deserves all the credit it gets. Even those with little or no interest in chess will find this documentary thoroughly engrossing, since the story is about much more than just the game. It is about a man's rise to greatness, and an example of what human beings can be capable....but at what price?