While it’s all agreeable and pleasant, it’s far from outstanding; it’s a very basic, formulaic, moderate inspirational drama.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Mar 17, 2025

The fields of math, music, chess, and acting all produce child prodigies. Luckily for us, lead child actor Max Pomeranc can check two prodigy boxes.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 13, 2021

Newcomer Max Pomeranc is nothing short of brilliant as Josh, handing in one of the best performances by a child actor you could ever hope to see.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2020

Searching for Bobby Fischer is a wonderfully engaging film about a young chess prodigy.

| Oct 9, 2019

A rare family film that's not afraid to inject conflict and complexity into its images of domestic happiness.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 13, 2019

Conrad Hall's Oscar-nominated photography is as impressive as the acting, with young Max Pomeranc, himself a top-ranking player, upstaging the likes of Joe Mantegna, Laurence Fishburne and Ben Kingsley.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 13, 2019

It makes for a good old-fashioned inspirational story, absorbing and pointed.

| Feb 13, 2019

Zaillian proves as much of a prodigy as his chess-playing subject, turning out a film that is a beautifully calibrated model of honestly sentimental filmmaking, made with delicacy, restraint and unmistakable emotional power.

| Feb 13, 2019

The story he is telling--about parenting, teachers and students, and the nature of competition--is a rich one, and Zaillian tells it with warmth, humor and zest. The cast is first-rate.

| May 15, 2018

Zaillian brings Searching for Bobby Fischer to a satisfying ending, but throughout the film he holds us with the finely balanced writing of his screenplay and with his ability to penetrate into the mysteries of chess.

| May 15, 2018

A film full of love and passion for chess, especially when it gets compare with life in general. [Full review in Spanish]

| Aug 29, 2016

Earnest and well-acted, Steve Zaillian's directorial debut explores the price of being a child prodigy while seeking to bring excitement to chess - becoming a kind of cerebral "The Karate Kid."

Full Review | Mar 10, 2011

Excellent story about sportsmanship.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 2, 2011

Pomeranc is wonderfully real and wide-eyed as Josh, with a raspy voice and slight lisp recalling Linus from the Peanuts cartoons.

| Mar 26, 2009

The mystery of Fischer's talent and torment adds depth to Searching for Bobby Fischer, about a young New York chess prodigy who doesn't want his genius to ruin his life.

| Feb 8, 2008

An intelligently crafted celebration of introspection and decency.

| Original Score: A | Apr 9, 2007

True, James Horner's score seems to have strayed in from a fists-in-the-air crowd-pleaser, but it's the one weak link in an accomplished, unexpectedly winning movie.

| Jun 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 5, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 3, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 11, 2005