Magnus
Director: Benjamin Ree
Year: 2016
Rating: 6.0
Country: Sweden
I wonder how many folks could name who the current World Chess Championship
is and where he is from? Not many I would guess. He is a quiet introverted
stay out of the public eye sort of fellow. This TV documentary is about his
life, Magnus Carlsen from Norway. He won the championship in 2013 at the
age of 23 years old. At one point in the documentary he plays ten players
simultaneously and wins. Blindfolded. And he could recount every move of
all ten games. Ya. That is smart. Like many chess players he seems shy, chess
games playing in his head all the time, socially awkward outside of his family
- but he says at one point that he knows about other chess players but I
am not nuts! Not yet anyways. Unlike Fischer and others he has family support
which may make him stay on an even keel. His father had noticed at a young
age that Magnus understood patterns - at two he was doing jigsaw puzzles
- and introduced him to chess.
He was a Grandmaster at 14. Much of the film focuses on his Championship
match in 2013 against Indian Viswanathan Anand, who had been champion since
2007. Though we know the outcome, the film still makes it rather suspenseful.
Very solid documentary with a lot of video of Magnus growing up at home and
at chess matches. The close-ups of him playing when things are going wrong
which they do even for a genius when the pressure is on are just painful
to see. His whole face crumples up. He would make a very bad poker player!
