For those who don't know, Bobby Fischer was a chess prodigy and, according to a consensus of contemporary grandmasters, the strongest chess player in history. He became a grandmaster in 1958 at the age if 15, the youngest to at that time. In the Interzonal and Candidates' matches in 1970 and 1971 he won an unprecedented 20 straight games to qualify to challenge Boris Spassky for the world championship. When he overwhelmed Spassky in 1972, he became the only American world titlist. From then until 1992, Fischer did not play a single game of chess in public. He forfeited his world title in 1975 and turned down lucrative offers to play again. In 1992 he was indicted for participating in a match with Spassky in Yugoslavia, against which the United States had an economic boycott. He subsequently lived abroad as a fugitive and was arrested (2004) in Japan for traveling on a revoked passport. Threatened with deportation to the United States, he was allowed to leave (2005) for Iceland after that nation granted him citizenship.


The movie is a true story based on another young chess prodigy, Josh Waitzkin. The title of the film is a metaphor about the character's quest to adopt the ideal of Fischer and his determination to win at any price. However, the main conflict in the film arises when Josh refuses to adopt the misanthropic point of view of Fischer.