Steven Zaillian, the writer and director of Searching for Bobby Fischer, retold the true story written by Fred Waitzkin about his chess prodigy son Josh. Both centered on the high personal cost and the extraordinary allure of success in such a self-involved isolated intellectual pursuit. Zaillian, who also wrote the screenplays for John Schlesinger’s The Falcon and the Snowman, Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, and Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, skillfully translates Fred Waitzkin’s two years of observations into a handful of manufactured anecdotes about chess as a mania, as an art, and as vicarious success for the parents. Most importantly, he explores the child’s point of view in the light of Bobby Fischer’s extraordinary example and its effect on others around them.
As shown in the movie, six-year-old Josh Waitzkin discovered the game watching chess players in New York City’s Washington Square Park. Soon he was challenging his Father and both used every trick they could think of to defeat the other. When it became clear that he was better than his Father, Josh stopped playing with him. For him, chess was never about being smarter or better, but about learning a complex skill. As an adult Josh Waitzkin became a master of Tai Chi as well, winning many competitions in both endeavors. He is also an established author and chess teacher. His latest book is called The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence.
Josh noted about his Tai Chi Chuan instructor that he “found the teacher that he had always searched for, a great master with the humility and generosity that true ‘Quality’ is all about.” The beauty of Josh Waitzkin’s example lay in the same attributes. More importantly, Josh and his Father’s book have served to exorcise the demonic example Fischer established for young chess wizards. Where Fischer bragged of being better than anyone and many taught their children to follow Fischer’s single-minded example, the book and film have established a healthier winning narrative. Zaillian has helped transform chess by the depth and humanity within his film.
Zaillian worked closely with the chess world described in the original book. He includes several archival clips showing the young Bobby Fischer and many of the chess wizards shown in the film were playing themselves on screen. Josh Waitzkin’s real teacher, Bruce Pandolfini, appears in a scene showing one of the earliest competitive games in Washington Square Park. Josh himself is shown late in the film playing a game behind the young actor portraying him. His sister appears as one of the challengers in the final tournament and his real Mother is seen talking to his stage mother in an early school scene. The prodigy competing against Josh in the final game was based on the real Jeff Sarwer, whose eccentric Father took both Jeff and his sister Julia out of school so that they could devote all their time to chess. The Sarwers were sleeping in their car between matches and soon went underground never to be seen for many years.
Max Pomeranc, the child who played Josh on screen, studied chess to the extent that he finished 6th in the third-grade National Chess tournament the year of his appearance in the film. Joe Mantegna, who plays the outclassed Father in the film, was the best chess player of all among the principal cast.