The World Champion

Good sport biopic, much better than "moving up" and others SB for last years. Excellent game of Khabensky and very neat to real events. So, don't miss.

I love Khabensky as an actor and I've seen many of his movies, I know what he's capable of but this one doesn't give him a lot of time or freedom for that matter to truly shine. His character is unlikable almost from the start and we as viewers are fed with hate toward him almost immediately and given what the creators of this movie intended to show it's understandable: they needed a villain, a certain opponent to Yankovsky's Karpov who turned out to be just as unlikable but for the whole different set of reasons.

The main issue with Champion of the world is that it's a caricaturistic one-dimensional bleak movie that's built on pseudo-patriotic feelings toward a true "champion" and animosity toward the bad guy, a defector, a traitor and an immoral person in general. But what actually happened to this "bad guy" to turn him into one? We will never know because we are only given the fact of his "badness" and are supposed to accept it as is. OK, but what about the good guy then? Are we given any reason to like him and empathize with him? Strike two.

Yankovsky is either a bad actor or he just presented Karpov as unemotional, cold and robotlike person whose only passion is the game and he's only in it to win it - it still doesn't make him any less of a villain to me. What's the point of screaming and shouting or sheding a tear if it's made with no effort of emotions? Khabensky was in contast more versatile and interesting to observe but the crazy persona he adopted from the script wouldn't allow me to enjoy his performance just as much.

The visual effects are great though, both the title sequence and the visualization of the matches were done beautifully, with perfect coloring and music which was overall pretty fitting except for a couple of scenes.

In the end this movie is a great example of why I don't watch russian movies that often. All about it screams patriotism, screams this is right and that is wrong, it doesn't give you any options to choose from, to interpret these and those things which is the worst way possible to make a movie. It has no antagonists, no protagonists, just some wooden characters, the conflict and the way to resolve it, it might as well just be a textbook of facts and figures and it could have been way more entertaining this way.

Chess!

Went to the cinema with big doubts!

Even without that, it was always clear to me that any film relating to the era of the USSR is an anti-Soviet craft with plasticine heroes and a far-fetched plot. Fortunately, this time a completely different case, although, of course, it could not have done without anti-Sovietism. Quote: "If the KGB finds out that we met, you will be sent to the Gulag!".

Firstly, few people in the modern generation probably know, but the GULAG is the Main Directorate of Camps, you can get into the camp, and not into the administration, and secondly, they really laid eyes on Karpov after this meeting, but no more, his meeting with the American did not remain unnoticed. In general, the film does not create an unnecessarily negative image of the USSR and its leaders, which pleases.

The picture tells, as it should - about chess and everything connected with them.

Probably there have never been films in the world cinema that so vividly destroy the myth that chess is not a sport. Nerves heated to the limit, undercover fighting, mental influence and exhausting the enemy by any means, all for the sake of victory, in war all means are good.

Special thanks and respect to K. Khabensky, who, I think, played one of his brightest roles in his entire long career, Yankovsky is also cool!

The only downside to this movie, in my opinion, is the length of time.

And so super!

This is a better than average chess film. Why? Because it has a real-life plot which is usually better than fictionalized plots. In this one, we have a former Russian chess Champion, Korchnoi, having defected to the West, is playing Karpov, the new young icon of Russian chess. Karpov is also a former student of Korchnoi, which complicates the plot and makes it more interesting. In this situation. Will the hot new young rising star win? Or will the old, wily veteran, who knows a bit more about the real world win? Will the teacher beat the student, or will the student best the teacher? Watch for yourself.

A superb movie based-on a real chess event, one of the best made, if not the best, on the 1978 Baguio City World Chess Championship between Anatoly Karpov and Victor Korchnoi.

• (+) Wonderful acting by almost all the cast, especially the two rivals who shone unequivocally.

• (+) Very believable atmosphere throughout, being chess-wise or depicting emotions.

• (+) Very true to the real events, from minute one (introduction) up to the last.

• (+) Masterful depiction and development.

• (+) Great VFX combined with classic camera work.

• (+) Loved Anatoly's father (Evgeniy) and love interest (Veronika) acting. Brought tears to my eyes.

• Nothing negative to my eyes, besides wanting it to have a longer runtime, as in a series!

Recommended of course to all people. Chess lovers and not!

• Screenplay/story: 8.5
• Development: 9
• Realism: 9
• Entertainment: 9.5
• Acting: 9
• Filming/cinematography: 8.5
• Visual/special effects: 9
• Music/score: 9
• Depth: 9
• Logic: 8.5
• Flow: 9
• Drama: 9
• Ending/closure: 9.