Hot Docs

Bobby Fischer was the rock star of the chess world, but died in squalor as a paranoid recluse. As a six-year-old in Brooklyn, he taught himself to play from an instruction booklet. At 14, he began a record-breaking streak of eight US championships. With dramatic archival footage and revealing interviews, director Liz Garbus reveals the stranger-than-fiction story behind one of the greatest chess players of all time. The FBI had a file on his emotionally absent Jewish single mother, and the KGB had a file on him. Henry Kissinger illuminates the Cold War politics behind 1972’s riveting ‘match of the century’ against the reigning Russian champion. Fischer’s spectacular win catapulted him to superstardom and ended Soviet domination of the chess world. His later bizarre behaviour spewing anti-Semitic and anti-American invective is framed against the breakdowns of earlier chess grandmasters, suggesting Fischer’s brilliance was inextricably linked to his madness. - Gisèle Gordon

Media Coverage

• Toronto Star review (recommended)
• NOW Magazine review (recommended)
• Maclean’s.ca What’s Hot at Hot Docs
• Criticize This Hot Docs Preview
• Eye Weekly review