Synopsis

At a time when the USSR reigned over half the world and terrified the other half, certain “comrades” were given the task of waging a very specific war. For forty years, these unusual fighters confronted the rest of the planet over a territory just a few inches square: the chessboard. Their mission was clear: to raise high the colours of the red flag and, to achieve that, they had to win, always win. On these minute battlefields, careers and even lives were at stake – a raise in salary here, an exit visa or a new apartment there... In a context where propaganda was everything and where heroes could never fail, the square on which a rook or a knight landed often decided a man’s fate.

 

This film will tell the story of these Soviet champions, of the faultless organization that produced, appraised and crafted them and the merciless struggle that they fought – and lost – against a young American prodigy. In this age of bilateral confrontation, every space, every gap needed to be fought over. Chess has frequently served as a metaphor for the activities of power, so much so that it’s a cliché. But never have ideology, arms and politics been so close to the edge of the chessboard as in late summer 1972, when Fischer the American and Spassky the Russian fought for the world crown. From the State Department to the Central Committee, from the American TV networks to the hierarchy of the KGB, all the tensions of the Cold War were concentrated on 64 varnished wood squares.

 

“The chess war” is, of course, a story of sport, propaganda and politics. It is also the story of a centuries-old game called chess...