Pawn Sacrifice takes us back to the days of the Cold War and to a time when chess prodigy Bobby Fischer was one of the biggest celebrities in the world.
Tobey Maguire plays the brilliant chess player in the film, who is ever so determined to become the world champion and defeat the Soviet Union, which has dominated the game for years. His journey to winning brings him face to face with the Soviet chess grandmaster, Boris Spassky (Live Schreiber), in what turns out to be the match of the century. But Fischer’s quest for victory soon becomes hobbled by his own obsessions and paranoia, and it comes to reveal a deep mental illness from which he may never recover.
A couple of weeks ago, we attended the LA press day for Pawn Sacrifice, where we spoke with Maguire and director Ed Zwick. They discussed the lengths taken to make chess both exciting and understandable to those who have never played it before, how they tapped into such an interesting figure like Bobby Fisher, and much more.
Check out what they had to say in the video above and be sure to catch Pawn Sacrifice as it’s now in theatres.
