Bobby Fischer Against the World

This is the definitive documentary of Fischer. This is the only video I can find that shows him. His interviews, his television appearances, his playing. The documentary is very well done and holds your (and my 12 year old daughter's) attention. I wish there was more of his pre-1972 playing days but this is as good as you are going to get. I really enjoyed it. If you plan to watch Pawn Sacrifice, this documentary would be great to play just before - give yourself a double feature. You can compare the movie footage to the actual event. I reviewed the video A Requiem for Bobby Fischer separately and gave it 2 stars. If you are debating, get this one - Against The World.

Outstanding Video, every chess player must watch. Demonstrates how Bobby Fischer changed the game of chess and history. A wonderful documentary by HBO which truthfully explores the genius and madness of Fischer. Excellent short comments from interviews from everyone who knew Bobby plus top world champions. Shows how he changed the game, and the world. Great coverage of his 1972 World Championship Match against Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland during the "Cold War."

Bobby Fischer Against the World by Liz Garbus maintained an excellent balance between compassion and objectivity. It is impossible to know for sure what happened in Bobby's mind after winning the world championship. I think he had a great fear of losing if he played another match with the next challenger. Also I think after winning the world championship he may have become increasingly aware of looking like a freak in all the media coverage that followed. I wanted to know more about what Fischer was like when he gave all his money to the church in Pasadena - maybe the same intense desire to prevail - in a supportive social setting. I'll take this moment to brag that I got to play a game with Bobby when he took on 50-60 chessplayers simultaneously in 1961 at the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel. Still a teenager, he was already U.S. champion. Fischer achieved an overwhelming advantage against me but tried to win too quickly and I was able to scramble to a draw by repitition of moves in a position that became too dangerous for both sides.

A well produced documentary of Bobby Fischer's life. Nice art direction, nicely edited, some great music. The documentary seemed fairly true (when compared to some biographies I've read) in presenting Fischer as an interesting figure in the History of Chess. Note...there is very little about the his chess strategy....but rather is about him as a tortured individual.

if there is a definitive book on Bobby Fischer, I think this is it. It seems based in documented facts and not personal perceptions with axes to grind. I've read other highly entertaining books that are written from a personal viewpoint I don't think ANYBODY knows about Fischer's thoughts and feelings except for Bobby himself. One thing is certain. He was one of those people that walk the thin line between genius and insanity, sometimes waffling both ways.

Should have been titled The 1972 Chess Championship in Iceland. There's so much detail -- yes, and it's interesting if also excessive -- about the historic match against Boris Spassky in 1972, but was that match the whole of Fischer's life? What and who else was there? Didn't he write influential and popular books on chess? He was a handsome man; where were the women in his life? Nothing, for example, is told of his Japanese wife or Filipino girlfriend, both added near the end of his life. We learn of them with respect to the inheritance of his estate in the two Bonus features on the disc. The features total just eight minutes and lead me to wonder why they weren't included in the film. They'd help us understand how Fischer supported himself after giving up the championship (unwilling to yield on match conditions) to Anatoly Karpov at the age of 32. His estate was valued at $2 million, not shabby for a chess bum. The documentary failed for me in two ways. One, it has very little of Fischer's personal life. His backers would say that's due to Fischer's animosity to cameras, but then, didn't he appear on national TV with Dick Cavett, with Johnny Carson? Didn't he allow a camera to tape him in the shower? I suspect his problem with cameras surfaced when it served his ego. Apparently he could be quite personable when he wanted to be. My second problem with the film's director or editor is the too-brief discussion of Fischer's hatred of Jews (though he was one himself) and of America. No amount of "mental illness" forgives Fischer cheering the twin towers falling on September 11. We needed to see more of that, until we are no longer giving "mental illness" a pass for evil. Genius in chess, the film tells us, has often been associated with mental instability. A parallel to Fischer is found in the life of Paul Morphy, a world beater who also flamed out when still young and in his prime. But there have been many chess champions who are not just rational but are heroic. The fearless Garry Kasparov comes immediately to mind. The Polgar sisters (now there's a story). The countless players around the world who love the game even if we lack a sliver of the brilliance of a Mikhail Tal. Yes, Fischer's mother could be charged with neglect, too often out sitting, marching or chanting at progressive demonstrations. So she was not a helicopter mom. Millions of American mothers in a later generation would say she was a role model. No, his mother does not merit the blame for Fischer's adult mind, forever immature and hateful. And he had older-brother and father figures, for example Larry Evans and Dick Schaap, the film tells us, and there were certainly others happy to help the orphan boy, the struggling single mother. So no, I don't accept mental illness as an excuse for the sewage that came out of Fischer's mouth. We are, each and every one of us, responsible for who we become as adults. So many others have had worse starts on life and then overcame and flourished. Fischer failed. That's the rest of the story that wasn't in the film. This was not a flawed man. This was a vile, tortured man, but one who could have turned himself around. That he didn't is on him, not on his mother, his absent father, Jews or America. Him. RIP, Bobby, even if you don't deserve to.

This documentary could have been easily twice as long and been just as utterly fascinating. There probably isn't going to be a director's cut or a 2nd edition but if there were... Ought to win an Oscar, hands down (and wasn't even nominated; what a snub, along with Harry Potter, Michelle Williams, etc., etc...)! Forget Hollywood and the media celebrities and their money; Bobby's going down in history!! A worthy subject and a worthy project. A real genius sorely missed, not just among chess players but, as Ljubojevic said, Bobby united and centralized a fragmented and marginalized world, only to suffer a same fate. God bless him.

Personaggio indimenticabile e, che piaccia o meno, indimenticabile e soprattutto uno dei pochi veramente significativi della storia degli scacchi. Questo documentario è decisamente buono, anche se personalmente l'avrei allungato di una mezz'oretta per dare un po' più di spazio ad alcuni aspetti. Packaging del prodotto molto basico ed essenziale, ma proprio per questo apprezzato.

Alles bestens, vielen Dank.

This is a very entertaining and informative documentary. I was surprised when it arrived that it is not packaged in a standard dvd case, but in a cardboard tri-fold about the size of a greeting card. The dvd is seated in a slot on the inner central page. The other inner pages have information on the programming while the outside and spine have more traditional artwork and notes. The spine misspells Fischer's name as "Fisher," so I'm not sure how much quality control went into this "green" packaging. I will probably end up transferring this to a standard dvd case as I am not sure how well the cardboard will hold up to extended shelf-life or how well it will protect the dvd from scratches or other damage.

It might be because I play chess, but I found the video fascinating. An excellent insight into the life of this chess genius who led somewhat of a peculiar and troubled life. To me it also revealed that psychology and mind games can contribute to an outcome in a game like chess besides just talent in itself, even at the highest level. The video would have been even better had there been more analyses of the games played.

The story of Bobby Fischer is a relatively simple one; a youth spent mastering chess to an almost unfathomable level so that he could take on an empire of trained chess professionals and prevail single handedly. What an amazing achievement - few individuals in any field of human endeavour can lay such a claim. And yet what a cost - Fischer was a deeply troubled individual whose obsession with chess alienated him from all other features of human experience - the most telling and poignant moment of the film for me was the revelation of his last words. People can choose to judge the man of course or lay it down to deep seated psychological flaws which I think get the cause-effect relationship wrong; here was the life of a man whose single minded obsession revealed that this is not the way to lead a happy and enduringly successful life. Showing that is the mark of a great film.