Searching for Bobby Fischer.....

...is now on Netflix instant watch. Just thought you should know.

Oh crap that is cool! thanks for sharing

Do you know why it was called that?

Two reasons, in my opinion:  1. Bobby had withdrawn from the media spotlight, so rumors abounded as to where he was and what he was doing, and 2. The world was vigilant for a new "child prodigy" to take Bobby's place, since the older and jaded Fischer had lost so much of his charm and the heroic visage that he possessed when he took on the Soviets.

I never saw or read it, so I was just wondering. I read somewhere that they were changing the book title to "Innocent Moves." How dumb sounding.

Actually it was the film, based on the book, that was renamed "Innocent Moves" for British (maybe all European?) audiences. Presumably someone presumed chess players in the UK would not have heard of Fischer. The book is well worth reading, the film is good too even though it's been Hollywooded up a bit.

In Josh's book "The Art of Learning" - also well worth reading, especially for the kicking incident - he titles one of the chapters "Innocent Moves".

What on earth is The Art of Learning about?

I've seen the movie many times and read the book as well. It's a great family story, even for those who don't like or understand chess all that well. Whoever has not seen it or is merely curious about it, you should watch it. Although, trying to find it to buy or rent is not easy. My g/f and I ordered two almost pristine copies from Amazon because the movie stores and places like FYE or Best Buy did not have it.

Actually, he never even became a bottom GM. But he DID become a strong IM. In all of the reviews, about "The Art of Learning" everybody seemed to think the book was the practically the greatest ever written.

BOOK SPOILER ALERT:

The book "Searching for Bobby Fischer" was brutally honest compared to the movie. Did you know that Josh lost a lot of games against his dad and was frustrated by that? In the movie, Josh's blitz mentor accompanied him to an important tournament. In real life, the guy gave Josh an old chess book then disappeared without a trace. Finally, Josh, Fred and Bruce Pandolfini went to Russia to watch the Karpov-Kasparov match and the KGB was monitoring them!

The "Art of Learning" gives the reader a peek at what really happened inside and outside the matches that Josh played in. Eventually it lead to Tai Chi and how he applied his discipline for chess studies to his new passion.

I read through some his 1995 book "Attacking Chess" and it said he started playing his father at the age of six, and must have lost at least a hundred times before he finally beat him. Then after he beat him several times, they quit playing. I guess because his dad hated losing all the time to a six year old, and josh didn't like the idea of always checkmating his dad.

It's more complicated than that actually.

According to his dad in the book Searching for Bobby Fischer he himself wanted to keep playing him, but once it became easy for Josh then Josh just stopped trying. 

Then the two books contradict each other. I'll dig it out, and quote it, soon. 

So I just watched this movie.  Good movie, blah blah.  I have one question.

At one point Cowboy Curtis is playing speed chess with Josh and says something along the lines of "don't play the pieces, play the man playing the pieces."  This seems like bad advice to me.  It would seem to me it would ALWAYS be better to play the board.  That way you're not influenced by anything other than what matters.  You could be playing a 6 year old or a master and the only thing that matters is what's on the board when it comes to your turn.

Any thoughts on this?

Yeah, I haven't seen the movie in forever, so I may be wrong...

But it's just a foil for the prosaic and practical advice of playing the board not the man... here's this guy playing blitz in a part, i.e. far from a pro, telling the kid to use psychology.

In real life you have to use a little of both, some use one more than another.  In top chess there is of course a ludicrous amount of technique and skill involved, but there are also a lot of mind games.

Orange basically nailed it. Much of the plot centers on emphasizing the differences between his blitz friends and his tournament teacher. It's like the recurring "Don't bring your queen out too early..." advice he always gets from his teacher vs. the wild tactical methods employed by the park players.

I wonder if I'm the only chess player who thinks that movie sucks?

It's a reasonably cute piece of family entertainment loosely based on the book. It's not a documentary; it's not a "chess" movie; it's not an attempt to dramatize the book.

They present Fishburne as an expert and I just had a "who does this park jerkoff think he is?  Directly contradicting someone like Pandolfini."  Maybe I'm just taking the movie too seriously.