a brilliant chess player attend a tournament and fall in love with a woman he meet there . on itself this would be a pretty bad angle on a story . so and there be more . there be the fact that the chess player be also completely alienate from the world because of his brilliance at the game and the fact there be some history haunt the player . this film step back and forth from romantic frivolity to tournament tension to historic event that shape the chess player and work quite nicely . it easy to grow attach to the two main character and easy to believe they might hit it off together like the way they do in this film . the added effect of the tournament be very good too and create a nice tension set . i have no idea of the strength of the chess player a i do not play the game myself but it look nice and believable . all in all and most of the film go down very easily . it be also forget again very easily though . so it nice to watch but nothing more than that . positive chess player catch between a rook and a hard place .