Tobey Maguire, Liev Schreiber And Director Edward Zwick Talk PAWN SACRIFICE

Sit down with Tobey Maguire, Liev Schreiber and director Edward Zwick as they explore the genius behind the madness of American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer in a new featurette from Bleecker Street’s PAWN SACRIFICE.

In a gripping true story set during the height of the Cold War, American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) finds himself caught between two superpowers when he challenges the Soviet Empire. Also starring Liev Schreiber and Peter Sarsgaard, PAWN SACRIFICE chronicles Fischer’s terrifying struggles with genius and madness, and the rise and fall of a kid from Brooklyn who captured the imagination of the world.

“The political moment of confrontation between East and West is such an interesting and rich moment dramatically,” says Zwick. “The idea of this kid from Brooklyn going up against the great Soviet Bear was irresistible on so many levels. Then, it also deals with the odd and sometimes inevitable correspondence between genius and madness.”

The year 1972 was packed with watershed events across the globe, including the winding down of the war in Vietnam, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union, the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, the Watergate break-in and Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking trip to China. But it was an international event of a very different kind that dominated headlines that summer.

In Iceland, Bobby Fischer, America’s foremost chess player, faced the reigning champion, Boris Spassky of Russia, in a series of matches that held the world spellbound.

Around the world, people were captivated by a mano-a-mano fight between two masters of the so-called “game of kings.” Eastern European players dominated the chess scene, and Fischer unknowingly became an avatar for the United States and its Cold War battle for dominance with the Soviet Union.

PAWN SACRIFICE chronicles Bobby Fischer’s pursuit of the chess world’s ultimate prize and the price he paid for his victory.

With a screenplay by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) and the score from James Newton Howard, PAWN SACRIFICE opens in select theaters on Wednesday, September 16th.

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Director Ed Zwick