3/5 chess is just a game: more than that and you lose something
  by R. Bagula (Lakeside, Ca United States)
With chess computers that can beat anybody with a database of all the best games
ever played and very deep look ahead ability, humans and chess seem a side issue.
Autistic children are a plague of the modern generation:
a mathematician who was trained from a very early age in proving and problem solving
gave up a fields medal.
Teaching you children to be hawks or lions doesn't make them
good monkeys as this movie points out.
But still it rewards the hawk over the lamb...
The ethics of bringing up a child just for one game
or one narrow hope in life is probably wrong.
Some people find themselves unable to bear losing
or admitting they can make mistakes;
that stops their learning process in a rut.
I liked the movie: it was well acted and well writen.

5/5 I love this movie
  by A. Humphrey
I bought it so I could include it in my movie collection. Watched it again and STILL love it!

3/5 Great Movie (5), Lousy DVD (1)
  by Scientific K (Seattle, WA United States)
I'm very surprised that no one commented on what the studio has done to this picture in the DVD release: The "widescreen" aspect ratio is achieved by taking the pan-and-scan version of the movie and lopping off the top and bottom to make the 4:3 aspect ratio into 16:9 (1.85:1). This means you see even less of the frame than in the VHS version! Thankfully, this practice is being abandoned by the movie studios. Let's hope this terrific movie gets a proper re-release on DVD soon.

5/5 Great find!
  by Tb (Broomfield,CO)
If you haven't bought this movie yet you need to do so. This is a fabulous family movie that inspires. I was thrilled to be able to find it new for this price. Would deal with this seller again!

5/5 King regnant -- a beautiful movie that stands on its own
  by Jean E. Pouliot (Newburyport, MA United States)
I don't know from chess and chess masters, so this supposed biography of chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin may be full of it. But as a solid and delightful film, it stands on its own. Young Josh happens on a group of lowdown characters in the park who play chess for drug money. Something sparks in his mind and he becomes obsessed with the game, and soon moves into the world of competitive chess. You don't have know a thing about chess to love this film. The story is less about the game than about a boy mastering his own fear of failure and his parents grappling with seeing their boy as who he is rather than as an extension of themselves. Sensitively played by Max Pomeranc (Josh), Joe Mantegna (his dad), Laurence Fishburne (chess player in the park) and Ben Kingsley (Josh's chess tutor). Great insight into competitive chess, paralleling Bobby Fisher's strange life.