The key figure of the sports drama of Oscar winner Edward Zwick is not the full-grown prodigy Fischer. An eccentric and paranoid, Jewish and anti-Semitic. Suspecting one and all. The Russians are in the fact that they play contractual matches, the Jews and the Communists in the world conspiracy, the FBI people in total tapping (through sockets and dental fillings), their own mother in the fall. So you are absolutely right, the role played by Tobey Maguire is excellent.
But as it seemed to me, the legendary Reykjavik chess battle, called by journalists the “silent Third World War” - is shown not as a competition of clever men, but as intellectual rock and roll. As a salvation from a crazy world and your own paranoid fears. The culmination of the fight. Spassky standing-up applauds the genius of Fischer, who decided on a suicidal move and won the most beautiful game in the history of chess. This is the moment of their common freedom. Beyond loneliness and political fights. In a world divorced from social conjuncture. Where the harmony of the unknowable game rules. And where the king is far from the strongest figure.