BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD

US, 2011, 93 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Liz Garbus.

This is a very interesting documentary, made by celebrated producer and director, Liz Garbus, whose films included Love, Marilyn and What Happened, Miss Simone?

By the 1970s, chess champion Bobby Fischer had a worldwide reputation, and 1972 saw his competing with Russian, Boris Spassky, for the world championship.

However, Fischer was an eccentric personality. His mother was a card-carrying communist and there are many visuals of her protests and campaigns. The family was on the move, with him as a loner, and he became interested in chess at the age of six, committed to it by the age of seven, practising, with an ability to look at illustrations of games and understand how they were played, going on tour to play a range of players at a time, chaperoned by his sister. By age 15, 1958, he was appearing on television shows and being interviewed.

Liz Garbus has assembled quite an extraordinary amount of historical footage, including a number of interviews with Fischer himself, with friends and advisers, with chess experts, with the celebrities, and even with Henry Kissinger who ordered him to go to Iceland in 1972. There is also historical footage of the period, with Nixon in the US, Brezhnev in the USSR, and the 1972 worldwide watching of the competition on television.

Fischer was an eccentric personality, making all kinds of demands on the Icelandic authorities (footage of them appears – at the time and then later when they welcomed him to Iceland when the US had cancelled his American citizenship). He was erratic about coming to Iceland, persuaded by his friends, behaving eccentrically when there, especially in the games, but ultimately winning.

The film also shows life after winning, his unwillingness to play for the challenge to his world championship, his being caught up in the Church of God, becoming anti-Semitic in his utterances, persuaded by young Hungarian woman to compete against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992 which led to the American government ban. He continued to badmouth the American government and finished up in Iceland where he alienated many people, dying in 2008.

The comments on his mental condition, his psychological problems are helpful – and the speculation about whether he would have been such a chess genius had he not been so eccentric and mentally unstable.

1. A quality documentary? Acclaim? The work of the director and her wide range?

2. Audience knowledge of Bobby Fischer, his origins, his career, his genius with chess, his competitiveness? His early years, his peak? And the aftermath and his being on the run? Disappearing?

3. The combination of historical footage, the range of interviews in talking heads, their links with Bobby Fischer, chess champions, collaborators, friends, his brother-in-law, experts, the personalities in Iceland in the 1970s and later, supervisor, grandmaster, chauffeur? The TV celebrities in the shows? The range of chapters? The indicating the footage and the interviews? The musical score?

4. The portrait of Bobby Fischer, American, born in 1943, Jewish background, his mother and her communist membership, seeing her in protests, in interviews, his separation from his mother? His sister, helping him when young, the tours, her brother-in-law? Continuing on the move, not having a childhood, aged six and chess, serious at seven, his training, spending the hours practising? The television interviews, at 15? The celebrities having him on their show and the questions? His study of chess magazines, ability to look at the games and work out in his head how they were played? His becoming a champion, on tour playing many people at the same time, the cash, his sister chaperoning him, the absent mother? Alone, and not really having a childhood?

5. The interviews at the time, on television when he was 15, later interviews when he was a champion? The interviews in 1972? Seeing his appearance, his age, growth, becoming a celebrity? The photographer and so many photos of him, especially in the 1970s – and their use in the film?

6. 1972, the Cold War, the images from the Soviet Union, the focusing on chess, becoming a national sport? The investment in Russians playing chess? Boris Spassky, world champion, the challenge? The images from Russia, Brezhnev, USA and Nixon? The authorities? The interventions by Henry Kissinger – and the interviews in his later life?

7. Spassky ready, going to Iceland, the room, his chair, waiting, pressing the button for the first game, forfeited?

8. Bobby Fischer, moody, alienating people, not wanting to go? The discussion of the terms, not wanting to be in Iceland, conscious of people following him? The discussions about the prize money? Further conditions? At his friends house, the friend’s father dying – and Fischer absentmindedly saying he didn’t mind? The pressure to go, his arrival, the airport, hurrying into the car, the crowds? Alone in the countryside? Not showing up? The variety of games, the forfeit, the draws? His reactions, suspicion about rays, the noise of the cameras, the whole room examined? The audience watching on screens outside?

9. The experts, the comments on Fischer as a champion, his games, the beauty of his games?

10. His physical trainer, the energy in training, his ambitions, his skills?

11. The audience on television, on American news, politics – and population? The patriotic support? His victory?

12. The scenes in Iceland, the authorities, the financial situation, the pressures? Their being interviewed 30 years later, especially with
Fischer settling in Iceland?

13. The aftermath, a certain emptiness after achievement, the possibility of defending his title against Kasparov, his fears, no show?

14. The religious background, the Church of God, its influence, the comments from his physical trainer and his being a member of the church, the television scenes with the founder of the Church, Fischer and his life, withdrawn, the anti-Semitic tone of the church, expectations of the second coming, the failure of the prophecy, Fischer and his leaving the church?

15. Zita, from Hungary, contacting Fischer, urging him to play, the 1990s, the challenge with Spassky, both past their peak, the game in Yugoslavia, the war, the American, his spitting at the document, his further talk about the CIA and plots, his becoming anti-American? His winning again Spassky?

16. His continuing to move, not having a homeland, the invitation to Iceland, the welcome, contacting his old chauffeur, the chauffeur making a documentary and clips from that film?

17. In Iceland, the welcome, television interviews, the interviewer who said that the interview proved that his father’s comments about his not being sane? Alienating people? Psychological difficulties? The walks and talks with the psychologist? The interviews with the psychologist?

18. Fischer, mental illness, the diagnoses? The fact that he was a genius – the touch of madness which enabled him to achieve as a
genius?

19. The film as a significant piece of 20th-century Americana?