Saturday Night at Market Chess Cinemas

Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) is certainly one of those films which seems to have stood the test of time, as poignant now as it was in the early-1990s, chronicling all of the unintended issues encountered when a father learns that his prepubescent son is a chess prodigy. Having played tournament chess myself and been a nationally-ranked player as an eight year boy (I would eventually put chess on the back-burner as I focused on football and other sports), I can identify with the atmosphere surrounding parents and competitive chess. And this film perfectly captures that culture. 

Steven Zaillian co-wrote and directed the film, in the same year he wrote Schindler's List, quite the year indeed for him. The film headlines Joe Mantegna, Ben Kingsley, Max Pomeranc, and Laurence Fishburne to fill out a dynamic cast for a well-crafted script. 

The film also impresses in that it avoids many of the easy-way-out narratives and endings which many films seem to take today.