Pawn Sacrifice
2014 · Movie · PG-13 · 115 min · ★ 6.7 · 69% critics
During the height of the Cold War, an American chess prodigy is drawn into a high-stakes rivalry that pits him against the Soviet Empire. As pressure mounts, his challenge becomes as much psychological as it is strategic.
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Details
- Years
- 2014
- Release date
- 2015-09-16
- Language
- English
- Rated
- PG-13
- Runtime
- 115 min
- Critic score
- 69/100
- TMDB rating
- 6.7/10 (1,066 votes)
About
You’ll like this if you enjoy Cold War rivalry dramas and intense, psychological sports stories set around chess; Not for you if you want lots of clear chess explanations or a faster, more balanced biopic, like The Queen's Gambit or Unbroken.
Pros: tense Cold War stakes; strong lead performance; exciting rivalry atmosphere | Cons: chess scenes under-explained; relies on genre conventions; pace can drag
Themes
- chess
- cold war
- 1970s
- victory
- biography
- chess champion
- chess tournament
- reykjavík, iceland
Cast & crew
Tobey Maguire
as Bobby Fischer
Peter Sarsgaard
as Father Bill Lombardy
Liev Schreiber
as Boris Spassky
Michael Stuhlbarg
as Paul Marshall
Lily Rabe
as Joan Fischer
Sophie Nélisse
as Young Joan
Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick
as Teen Bobby Fischer
Conrad Pla
as Carmine Nigro
Aiden Lovekamp
as Young Bobby Fischer
Evelyne Brochu
as Donna
Directed by Edward Zwick