Chess culture · 5 min read
The best chess films and television, and what each gets right
Chess is hard to film. The interesting part happens inside somebody's head, takes hours, and looks like two people sitting still. The good films solve this by filming the people rather than the board.
The list is sorted by kind rather than by rank, with the one chess fact worth knowing about each.
1.c4
1.c4: Fischer's first move in Game 6 of the 1972 world championship, after a career of opening almost always with 1.e4.
The Queen's Gambit (2020)
Netflix called it its most-watched scripted limited series at the time, and it is the most accurate drama here. Bruce Pandolfini and Garry Kasparov worked on the chess; the positions are legal and the tournament procedure is right.
Chess sites and retailers reported a surge of new players afterwards, including many women and girls, though those figures came from the companies themselves.
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
The best film about chess, and mostly about what adults do to a gifted child. It is based on Fred Waitzkin's book about his son Josh, with Ben Kingsley as Bruce Pandolfini, Josh's real coach.
Josh's rival in the film, Jonathan Poe, is fictional. The scene to watch is in the final game, when Josh sees he is winning and offers his rival a draw.
Pawn Sacrifice (2014)
Tobey Maguire as Bobby Fischer and Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky, with the 1972 Reykjavík match as a Cold War proxy, which it was. The film follows the real match with the timeline compressed.
Its best chess moment needs no dramatisation. In Game 6, Fischer opened 1.c4 after a career built on 1.e4. He won, and Spassky joined the audience in applauding.
Queen of Katwe (2016)
A Disney film directed by Mira Nair, telling the true story of Phiona Mutesi, who learned chess in Katwe, a slum in Kampala, and went on to represent Uganda. Her coach, Robert Katende, and his programme are real.
It is the most inspiring film here and the one most likely to work on a child. The point is that chess is cheap, portable and indifferent to where you were born.
Brooklyn Castle (2012)
A documentary about the chess team at IS 318, a Brooklyn middle school where most students come from low-income families and whose team has won a long run of national titles.
For a parent deciding whether a school chess club is worth supporting, this is the case for it, made without a motivational speech.
Documentaries about the greats
- Bobby Fischer Against the World (2011): the Fischer documentary, unsparing about his later life. A good companion to Pawn Sacrifice.
- Magnus (2016): Magnus Carlsen from childhood to the 2013 world title.
- Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine (2003): the 1997 Deep Blue match, told from Kasparov's side. Its suspicions of IBM are a point of view, not settled fact.
The oddities
- Computer Chess (2013): a deadpan, partly improvised comedy about a 1980s computer-chess tournament, shot on period video cameras.
- The Dark Horse (2014): the true story of Genesis Potini, a New Zealand speed-chess player with bipolar disorder who taught chess to young people in Gisborne.
- Critical Thinking (2020): John Leguizamo's film about the Miami Jackson High team that won a national championship.
- The Luzhin Defence (2000): from Nabokov's novel, with John Turturro as a grandmaster losing his grip. The most literary entry, and the least interested in accuracy.
The historical curiosities
- Chess Fever (1925): a Soviet silent comedy that mixes real footage of the Moscow 1925 tournament into a farce, including an appearance by José Raúl Capablanca. Short, and still funny.
- The Chess Players (1977): Satyajit Ray's film about two noblemen who play chess while the British annex their kingdom of Awadh.
- Dangerous Moves (1984): a world championship match as a Cold War drama. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Folklore worth not repeating
- The final game in The Queen's Gambit is not a historical game played to its real end. It is reported to be built on Ivanchuk against Wolff, Biel 1993, with a composed ending.
- Beth Harmon is not a portrait of any one real player. The era is real; she is not.
- Fischer lost Game 1 in Reykjavík at the board, after 29...Bxh2 in a level endgame. Game 2 was the one he forfeited by not appearing.
Key takeaways
- Searching for Bobby Fischer is the best film here, and it is about parenting as much as chess.
- The Queen's Gambit is the most accurate drama, thanks to Pandolfini and Kasparov.
- Pawn Sacrifice's best moment is real: Fischer's 1.c4 in Game 6, and Spassky applauding.
- For a child, Queen of Katwe and Brooklyn Castle work better than any drama.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best chess movie?
- Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), which is as much about how adults treat a gifted child as about chess. For accurate chess, The Queen's Gambit is the strongest drama; for a documentary, Brooklyn Castle.
- Is the chess in chess movies usually accurate?
- Usually not. Boards set up the wrong way, impossible positions and false checkmates are common. The Queen's Gambit is the clearest exception, because Bruce Pandolfini and Garry Kasparov worked on the chess.
- What chess film should I watch with my child?
- Queen of Katwe or Brooklyn Castle. Both are true stories about young players who started with little and got good, and neither needs any chess knowledge to follow. Searching for Bobby Fischer suits children from about ten.
- Was Fischer's 1.c4 in Game 6 really a surprise?
- Yes. Fischer had opened with 1.e4 almost exclusively throughout his career, so 1.c4 in Game 6 of the 1972 match took Spassky away from familiar ground. Fischer won, and Spassky applauded the game.