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By Leon van Nierop

Journalist


Tobey Maguire stars in Pawn Sacrifice (trailer)

This is the second Cinema Nouveau film this week about an iconic, brooding and famously troubled figure.


This time it is the eccentric and often unstable chess player Bobby Fischer who, during the Cold War in the fifties, rose to be the best chess player in America. He undertook to beat the reigning Russian chess champion Boris Spassky to become the world champion.

Their brutal game of chess has been described as the greatest game of chess ever played and the film focuses on Fischer’s bizarre behaviour and his slow descent into madness. Tobey Maguire gives a passionate, believable and focussed performance.

A must for audiences who like their films sophisticated and intense.

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