Even if you don’t know anything about chess – and even though this Empire correspondent was in the chess club at school, it was purely so he could get out of playing sodding rugby during games afternoons – you’ll probably be able to name Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer, two of the greatest players in the history of the sport/hobby/pastime.
Fischer, of course, died just a couple of weeks ago, and has already been immortalised in cinematic terms thanks to Steven Zaillian’s 1993 movie Searching For Bobby Fischer. However, that movie didn’t feature Fischer as a character.
Now that’s about to change, with the news that Working Title and Universal have teamed up yet again to adapt the book, Bobby Fischer Goes To War, which documents the classic 1972 battle between Fischer, then a chess whiz-kid, and his rival, Spassky, at the World Chess Championship.
Kevin Macdonald will direct the movie, once he’s finished work on State Of Play, the political thriller currently shooting also under the auspices of Working Title and Universal.
Chess is a game that translates well to movies – think The Seventh Seal, think The Thomas Crown Affair, think Knight Moves, ok, don’t think Knight Moves – and Bobby Fischer Goes To War is already a mouth-watering prospect. Shawn Slovo will script, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner will, as ever, call the shots for Working Title.