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Prepared to be the Best
A Gifted Youngster
And His Struggle
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MICHAEL ELKIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
T
hey are chummy check
mates: Josh Waitzkin,
the 16-year-old chess
wunderkind, and Max
Pomeranc, the 8-year-old
cherub of a chess prodigy
who plays him as a younger
child in Searching for Bobby
Fischer.
Both are palling around
for the press, talking about
the movie which focuses on
Josh's real-life gambits from
a Jewish kid interested in
the game to one of the best in
the world, drawing com-
parisons to the legendary
Fischer.
A teen teeming with con-
fidence and poise, Josh
wastes no time in making
his first move: a beguiling
smile which disarms and
destroys any notion that ge-
nius need lack warmth.
There is a vulnerability in
Josh which stops short of the
chess board, where he seems
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chess championship leads to
a checkered life of fame, for-
tune and fatigue? Is the pur-
suit of one's field of dreams
worthwhile when others left
on the sidelines are green
with envy?
"Chess is enormously im-
portant to me," says Josh.
"It's what I am most pas-
sionate about. But I do a lot
of other things."
Indeed, Josh is a good
sport, talented in basketball
and football as well. But
chess demands incredible
time and talent — and
burdens —that not even
football pads could help him
shoulder.
"People put that burden on
my shoulders," says the
youngster with a shrug of
those whose search for the
new Bobby Fischer has led
them to this 16-year-old Jew-
ish kid from New York.
"I've heard a lot about
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The chess prodigy plans his move.
invincible: The day before
our talk, he has just been
named an international
chess master, one step below
that of grandmaster.
"I hope to become a
grandmaster in the next
year-and-a-half," says Josh.
This is one young chair-
man of the board who
refuses to be a pawn to ambi-
tion. Indeed, Searching for
Bobby Fischer seeks to il-
lustrate how the games peo-
ple play can suddenly stop
being playful and turn dead-
ly serious.
Does a gifted youngster
abandon his childhood for
the sake of that gift? What
happens when the road to a
Michael Elkin is the entertainment
editor of the Jewish Exponent in
Philadelphia.
that, people saying that Josh
Waitzkin is the next Bobby
Fischer. Well, my favorite
line from the movie is 'I'm
not him. I am not him.' I
struggle to maintain my own
identity."
Certainly, gifted
youngsters — be they chess
players or math mavens
—can identify with the
struggle that Josh experi-
ences in Searching for Bobby
Fischer.
The conflicts in the Wait-
zkin family provide a crown-
ing touch for the film in its
search for its own soul. The
mother, Bonnie (Joan Allen),
tries to shield her young son
from the harsh realities
attendant to the pursuit of
perfection, while father Fred
(Joe Mantegna) loses sight at