Best Chess Movies

The 10 best chess movies

These are feature films, ranked by how many of nine well-known chess-movie lists name them. Films named by the same number of lists are ordered by their Rotten Tomatoes critics score. Documentaries and TV series have their own sections below, and How we picked explains the method.

1. Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)

Drama, 1993 · Directed by Steven Zaillian · Max Pomeranc (Josh Waitzkin), Joe Mantegna (Fred Waitzkin), Ben Kingsley (Bruce Pandolfini) · 111 minutes · PG; Common Sense Media 8+

Named by 9 of 9 lists · Critics: 98% (44 reviews) · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: free with ads on YouTube

Seven-year-old Josh Waitzkin has a gift for chess, and he and his father have to learn to keep the pressure of competition from coming between them. The film is based on Fred Waitzkin's book about his son, a real prodigy. Ben Kingsley plays Bruce Pandolfini, Josh's real coach; the final rival and the last tournament were changed for drama. Conrad L. Hall's photography was nominated for an Oscar in 1994.

2. Queen of Katwe (2016)

Drama, 2016 · Directed by Mira Nair · Madina Nalwanga (Phiona Mutesi), Lupita Nyong'o (Harriet), David Oyelowo (Robert Katende) · 124 minutes · PG; Common Sense Media 10+

Named by 7 of 9 lists · Critics: 94% (187 reviews) · Stream in India: VI movies and tv · Stream in the US: Disney+

Phiona Mutesi, a girl from Katwe in Uganda, learns chess from the coach Robert Katende and goes on to play in international events. Disney's film, directed by Mira Nair, tells her true story; a chess site's fact check says it shortens the timeline and sharpens some turning points. Madina Nalwanga plays Phiona, with Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo.

3. Pawn Sacrifice (2014)

Drama, 2014 · Directed by Edward Zwick · Tobey Maguire (Bobby Fischer), Liev Schreiber (Boris Spassky), Peter Sarsgaard (William Lombardy) · 114 minutes · PG-13; Common Sense Media 13+

Named by 7 of 9 lists · Critics: 73% (119 reviews) · Stream in India: Prime Video · Stream in the US: free with ads

The film follows Bobby Fischer's road to the 1972 world championship match against Boris Spassky as a Cold War story about a genius under pressure and his growing paranoia. When Chess.com checked the film, it found that the games of the 1972 match on screen were the real ones and were shown correctly, including game six. It premiered at the Toronto film festival in 2014 and reached US cinemas on 16 September 2015. The documentary Bobby Fischer Against the World covers the rest of his life.

4. The Luzhin Defence (2000)

Drama, 2000 · Directed by Marleen Gorris · John Turturro (Alexander Luzhin), Emily Watson (Natalia) · 108 minutes · PG-13

Named by 7 of 9 lists · Critics: 58% (73 reviews) · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: rent or buy only

A troubled grandmaster arrives to play the match of his life and falls in love, while his obsession with chess slowly takes over his mind. The film is based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, and Emily Watson was nominated for best actress at the 2000 British Independent Film Awards.

5. Dangerous Moves (La Diagonale du fou, 1984)

Swiss drama, 1984 · Directed by Richard Dembo · Michel Piccoli (Akiva Liebskind), Alexandre Arbatt (Pavius Fromm) · 110 minutes

Named by 5 of 9 lists · Critics: 67% (6 reviews) · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: Prime Video, and free with ads on Tubi, Plex and others

In Geneva, the Soviet world champion Akiva Liebskind defends his title against his former student Pavius Fromm, who has defected to the West, in a match under heavy political pressure. Richard Dembo's film won the Academy Award for best foreign language film for Switzerland in 1985. The documentary Closing Gambit covers a real match of that kind: Karpov, the Soviet champion, against the defector Korchnoi in 1978.

6. Life of a King (2013)

Drama, 2013 · Directed by Jake Goldberger · Cuba Gooding Jr. (Eugene Brown), Malcolm Mays (Tahime), Richard T. Jones (Perry) · 101 minutes · PG-13; Common Sense Media 13+

Named by 5 of 9 lists · Critics: 38% (13 reviews) · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: Prime Video, Peacock, fuboTV, Philo

Eugene Brown comes out of prison and uses chess, and its rule to think before you move, to keep teenagers in Washington, DC, off the streets. The film tells the true story of the Big Chair Chess Club he founded. Its critics score is low, 38% from only 13 reviews, but five of the nine lists name it.

7. Chess Fever (1925)

Soviet silent comedy, 1925 · Directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin and Nikolai Shpikovsky · Vladimir Fogel, Anna Zemtsova, José Raúl Capablanca (himself) · About 20 to 28 minutes, by copy

Named by 5 of 9 lists · Critics: no score · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: free on Kanopy

A young man is so obsessed with chess that he neglects his fiancée, until she meets the world champion, José Raúl Capablanca, who plays himself, and takes up the game too. The silent comedy mixes acted scenes with footage of a real chess tournament in Moscow. It is in the public domain in Russia, and a free copy is on Wikimedia Commons.

8. Knights of the South Bronx (2005)

TV film, A&E, 2005 · Directed by Allen Hughes · Ted Danson (Richard Mason), Malcolm David Kelley (Jimmy), Keke Palmer (Kenya Brown) · 96 minutes · PG

Named by 5 of 9 lists · Critics: no score · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: none found

Ted Danson plays a teacher who uses chess to give a class of fourth-graders in the South Bronx confidence and a way into national events. The A&E film, first shown on 6 December 2005, is based on the life of the teacher David MacEnulty. A chess master who reviewed the chess found most of it accurate but noted serious mistakes, such as mixing up repetition and stalemate.

9. The Dark Horse (2014)

New Zealand drama, 2014 · Written and directed by James Napier Robertson · Cliff Curtis (Genesis Potini), James Rolleston (Mana), Kirk Torrance (Noble) · 124 minutes · R; Common Sense Media 15+

Named by 4 of 9 lists · Critics: 97% (65 reviews) · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: fuboTV

After a breakdown, the New Zealand chess champion Genesis Potini coaches children at a struggling chess club while he tries to save the club, his nephew and himself. The film tells Potini's true story, with Cliff Curtis in the lead. It won six New Zealand Film Awards, among them best picture, director, screenplay and actor.

10. Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players, 1977)

Indian drama, 1977 · Directed by Satyajit Ray · Sanjeev Kumar (Mirza Sajjad Ali), Saeed Jaffrey (Mir Roshan Ali), Shabana Azmi (Khurshid) · 121 minutes

Named by 4 of 9 lists · Critics: 91% (11 reviews) · Stream in India: Prime Video, and free on Shemaroo's YouTube channel · Stream in the US: free with ads on Tubi

Two noblemen of Awadh play chess day after day while the British annex their kingdom in 1856. Satyajit Ray based the film on a story by Munshi Premchand, and the Venice film festival showed it in its Classics section in 2022. The Hindi title is also spelled Shatranj Ke Khiladi, and Shemaroo has the full film free on YouTube.

More chess movies worth watching

These films are named by fewer lists, or are newer than most of them. They are ordered by critics score.

1. 1.Critical Thinking (2020), 97%: John Leguizamo directs and plays Mario Martinez, the teacher whose Miami Jackson High School team became the first inner-city team to win the US national chess championship, in 1998. A classroom scene replays a game Paul Morphy played in 1858. US: Wonder Project, a Prime Video channel.
2. 2.The Seventh Seal (1957), 93%: a knight back from the Crusades challenges Death to a game of chess to put off his fate while the Black Death spreads. Max von Sydow plays the knight in Ingmar Bergman's film. US: HBO Max and the Criterion Channel.
3. 3.Fresh (1994), 88%: a boy caught up in crime uses the chess strategy his father taught him to set rival criminals against each other and free himself and his sister. Samuel L. Jackson plays the father. Rated R. US: Philo and Starz.
4. 4.Chess Story (Schachnovelle, 2021), 88% from 8 reviews: a prisoner of the Gestapo keeps his mind alive by studying a stolen book of famous chess games. It is based on Stefan Zweig's novella, Oliver Masucci won best actor at the Bavarian Film Awards for the lead, and it reached US cinemas on 13 January 2023.
5. 5.Computer Chess (2013), 86%: programmers in the early 1980s meet at a tournament to build a chess program that can beat a human. Andrew Bujalski's film won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance in 2013. US: free with ads on Plex.
6. 6.Queen to Play (Joueuse, 2009), 70%: a chambermaid on Corsica discovers chess and learns it from a reclusive American doctor, played by Kevin Kline, with Sandrine Bonnaire as the chambermaid. It is based on Bertina Henrichs's novel. US: free on Kanopy.

Best chess TV shows

The Queen's Gambit is the chess TV show to watch: four of the nine movie lists include it even though it is a series. Grandmasters, a documentary series, is the newest.

The Queen's Gambit (2020)

Netflix limited series, 2020 · Directed by Scott Frank · Anya Taylor-Joy (Beth Harmon), Marielle Heller (Alma) · 7 episodes · TV-MA; Common Sense Media 15+

Named by 4 of 9 lists · Critics: 96% (104 reviews) · Stream in India: Netflix · Stream in the US: Netflix

Beth Harmon, an orphan, becomes a chess prodigy and fights her way to the top of the game while she struggles with addiction. The series is based on a novel by Walter Tevis and takes its name from a chess opening, the Queen's Gambit. It won 11 Emmys from 18 nominations and the 2021 Golden Globe for best limited series.

Garry Kasparov and the coach Bruce Pandolfini advised on the chess, and Kasparov picked a real game, Patrick Wolff against Vassily Ivanchuk at the 1993 Biel Interzonal, for the final game of the series. Netflix said 62 million households chose to watch it in its first 28 days, and that new players on Chess.com rose fivefold. In the three weeks after it came out, sales of chess sets in the US rose 87% and sales of chess books 603%.

Grandmasters (2026)

Documentary series, 2026 · Directed by Liza Mandelup · Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Hans Niemann · 3 episodes

Named by no list yet (2026 release) · Critics: no score yet · Stream in India: not released · Stream in the US: in AMC cinemas on 11 and 14 October 2026

The businessman Jan Henric Buettner and Magnus Carlsen set out to launch a new chess league that challenges FIDE, and the series follows the top players and the power plays behind it. It premiered at the Tribeca Festival on 7 June 2026. Good Deed Entertainment bought it in August 2026, and a feature version plays in more than 90 AMC cinemas in the US on 11 and 14 October 2026. No streaming date had been announced by 25 September 2026.

Best chess documentaries

Brooklyn Castle and Magnus are the documentaries the lists name most, seven of nine each. The two newest came out on Netflix in 2026 and come first; the rest follow in list order.

Queen of Chess (2026)

Documentary, 2026 · Directed by Rory Kennedy · Judit Polgar, Garry Kasparov, László Polgar · 93 minutes · TV-PG; Common Sense Media 10+

Named by no list yet (2026 release) · Critics: 82% (17 reviews) · Stream in India: Netflix · Stream in the US: Netflix

The film follows Judit Polgar's 13-year push to beat the best men in chess, against scepticism, sexism and the world champion, Garry Kasparov. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2026 and came to Netflix on 6 February. The chess consultant, FM Dan Rozovsky, made sure that the games, scoresheets and clocks on screen were authentic. In 1991 Polgar broke Bobby Fischer's record as the youngest grandmaster; the full list is on youngest chess grandmasters.

Untold: Chess Mates (2026)

Documentary, 2026 · Directed by Thomas Tancred · Magnus Carlsen, Hans Niemann, Hikaru Nakamura · 74 minutes · TV-MA; Common Sense Media 14+

Named by no list yet (2026 release) · Critics: no score · Stream in India: Netflix · Stream in the US: Netflix

The film covers the cheating row that began when Hans Niemann beat Magnus Carlsen at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup: Carlsen's withdrawal, the tighter security, the public accusations and Niemann's comeback, up to their rematch in 2024. Netflix released it on 7 April 2026 as a feature-length episode of its Untold series.

Brooklyn Castle (2012)

Documentary, 2012 · Directed by Katie Dellamaggiore · Rochelle Ballantyne, Pobo Efekoro · 101 minutes · PG; Common Sense Media 8+

Named by 7 of 9 lists · Critics: 96% (51 reviews) · Stream in India: free with ads on Plex · Stream in the US: fuboTV

The chess team of I.S. 318, a public middle school in Brooklyn, had won more than 30 national championships when budget cuts put it at risk. The film follows five of its young players, among them Rochelle Ballantyne, who hoped to become the first African-American woman to earn the title of chess master. PBS showed it in its POV series in October 2013.

Magnus (2016)

Documentary, 2016 · Directed by Benjamin Ree · Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov · 78 minutes · Not rated; Common Sense Media 10+

Named by 7 of 9 lists · Critics: 81% (26 reviews) · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: Prime Video

Home videos and archive footage follow Magnus Carlsen from childhood to grandmaster at 13 and world champion in 2013. He is still world No. 1 on the September 2026 rating list, as the ranking of the best chess players in the world shows.

Bobby Fischer Against the World (2011)

Documentary, 2011 · Directed by Liz Garbus · Bobby Fischer, David Edmonds, Henry Kissinger · 92 minutes

Named by 6 of 9 lists · Critics: 88% (51 reviews) · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: none found

Liz Garbus follows Fischer from a troubled childhood to world champion and Cold War icon, and then to his years as a fugitive. The film premiered at Sundance in 2011 and was nominated for an Emmy in 2012 as outstanding nonfiction special. Pawn Sacrifice tells the story of his 1972 match as drama.

Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine (2003)

Documentary, 2003 · Directed by Vikram Jayanti · Garry Kasparov and the IBM Deep Blue team · 84 minutes · PG

Named by 5 of 9 lists · Critics: 76% (29 reviews) · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: Prime Video

In 1997 the world champion, Garry Kasparov, played a match against IBM's computer Deep Blue and lost. The film tells the story through Kasparov, his manager and the Deep Blue team, and follows Kasparov's claim that IBM cheated.

Closing Gambit (2018)

Documentary, 2018 · Directed by Alan Byron · Anatoly Karpov, Viktor Korchnoi, Garry Kasparov · 81 minutes · Unrated

Named by 2 of 9 lists · Critics: no score · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: Prime Video

The film covers the 1978 world championship match between Anatoly Karpov, the Soviet champion, and Viktor Korchnoi, who had defected, played under heavy pressure from the Kremlin. It uses interviews with people who were there and rare footage, such as Campomanes, the organiser, raising a glass of champagne to Karpov after his first win.

Indian chess movies

The best Indian chess film is Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977), No. 10 in our list. Three more Indian films have chess in the title or the plot.

Chess (2006)

Malayalam thriller, 2006 · Directed by Raj Babu · Dileep, Bhavana, Vijayaraghavan, Ashish Vidyarthi · In cinemas from 7 July 2006

Named by 0 of 9 lists · Critics: no score · Stream in India: ManoramaMax, VI movies and tv · Stream in the US: not checked

Vijay Krishnan sets out to take revenge on the people who destroyed his family. Rediff's review in July 2006 called it a revenge story in which the hero, a dance teacher's son, pretends to be blind. Neither the review nor the film's listing describes chess games, so it is not in our ranking.

Wazir (2016)

Hindi thriller, 2016 · Directed by Bejoy Nambiar · Amitabh Bachchan (Pandit Omkarnath Dhar), Farhan Akhtar (Danish) · 102 minutes

Named by 1 of 9 lists · Critics: 56% (9 reviews) · Stream in India: none found · Stream in the US: none found

A grieving anti-terror officer teams up with a paralysed grandmaster, played by Amitabh Bachchan, against a dangerous opponent, and the story borrows its metaphors from chess. Wazir is the Hindi word for the queen. The film opened in cinemas on 8 January 2016.

Check (2021)

Telugu thriller, 2021 · Directed by Chandra Sekhar Yeleti · Nithiin · In cinemas from 26 February 2021

Named by 0 of 9 lists · Critics: no score · Stream in India: Prime Video, Sony LIV, Sun NXT, VI movies and tv · Stream in the US: not checked

A prisoner accused of terrorism learns chess in jail, plays national and Commonwealth events and becomes a grandmaster.

A Viswanathan Anand biopic and a documentary about India's young grandmasters were announced but had not come out by September 2026; see New and upcoming chess movies.

Chess movies on Netflix

Three chess titles were on Netflix in both India and the US on 25 September 2026:

1. 1.The Queen's Gambit (2020), the series
2. 2.Queen of Chess (2026), the documentary about Judit Polgar
3. 3.Untold: Chess Mates (2026), the documentary about Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann

The Coldest Game (2019), a Netflix spy film built around a US-Soviet chess match, was not on Netflix in either country that day, and Common Sense Media found almost no chess in it. On other services, Prime Video had Pawn Sacrifice, Shatranj Ke Khilari and Check in India, and Dangerous Moves, Life of a King, Magnus, Game Over and Closing Gambit in the US. Disney+ had Queen of Katwe in the US.

Chess movies based on true stories

These films tell true stories:

1. 1.Pawn Sacrifice: Bobby Fischer and the 1972 world championship match
2. 2.Queen of Katwe: Phiona Mutesi of Uganda
3. 3.Searching for Bobby Fischer: Josh Waitzkin, from his father's book; the final rival is made up
4. 4.The Dark Horse: Genesis Potini of New Zealand
5. 5.Life of a King: Eugene Brown and the Big Chair Chess Club in Washington, DC
6. 6.Knights of the South Bronx: the teacher David MacEnulty and his chess class
7. 7.Critical Thinking: the Miami Jackson High School team, national champions in 1998

The Queen's Gambit is not a true story: Beth Harmon is a character from a novel by Walter Tevis. Every documentary on this page, from Queen of Chess to Closing Gambit, is about real people.

Chess movies for kids

Common Sense Media, which reviews films for parents, gives these ages:

1. 1.7+: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (PG), for its game of wizard's chess (see famous scenes)
2. 2.8+: Searching for Bobby Fischer (PG) and Brooklyn Castle (PG)
3. 3.10+: Queen of Katwe (PG), Magnus, Queen of Chess and A Little Game (2014, PG), a coming-of-age film that uses chess as a metaphor

For the youngest, Pixar's short film Geri's Game (1997) shows an old man playing a daylong game of chess against himself in a park. The Queen's Gambit is rated TV-MA and 15+, so it is for older teenagers.

Famous chess scenes in movies

Chess scenes turn up in many films that are not about chess. Our pick for the most famous is the knight's game with Death in The Seventh Seal. Ten more:

1. 1.From Russia with Love (1963): the SPECTRE planner Kronsteen wins a tournament game with the moves of Boris Spassky against David Bronstein, USSR Championship 1960, though the board on screen is missing some pieces.
2. 2.2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): the computer HAL 9000 beats the astronaut Frank Poole with the finish of Roesch against Schlage, Hamburg 1910; Chess.com points out errors in how HAL announces the moves.
3. 3.Blade Runner (1982): Roy Batty uses J. F. Sebastian's correspondence game with Tyrell to get in to see him, and finishes it with the moves of Anderssen against Kieseritzky, London 1851.
4. 4.Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001): Ron gives himself up in a game of giant wizard's chess so that Harry can give checkmate. IM Jeremy Silman made up the position, but the final edit cut key moves, so the mate on screen does not work.
5. 5.X-Men (2000): Charles Xavier and Magneto play chess to show their rivalry.
6. 6.Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011): Holmes and Moriarty finish their game blindfold, calling out moves from Larsen against Petrosian at the Piatigorsky Cup, Santa Monica 1966.
7. 7.Casablanca (1942): Humphrey Bogart plays chess early in the film, and a knight briefly disappears from the board.
8. 8.The Thomas Crown Affair (1968): Thomas Crown and the investigator Vicki Anderson turn a game that opens with the Ruy Lopez into a seduction.
9. 9.The Thing (1982): MacReady loses to a chess computer and pours his whisky into it; the last move on screen, Rg6, is not checkmate.
10. 10.The Shawshank Redemption (1994): Andy carves chess pieces in prison and tries to teach Red the game; chess helps him stay sane.

New and upcoming chess movies

2026 has been a busy year for chess on screen: Queen of Chess (February) and Untold: Chess Mates (April) came out on Netflix, and Grandmasters premiered at Tribeca in June. Still to come:

1. 1.Grandmasters: a feature version plays in more than 90 AMC cinemas in the US on 11 and 14 October 2026; no streaming date yet.
2. 2.Checkmate: in 2024 A24 bought a film project about the Carlsen and Niemann scandal, with Nathan Fielder attached to direct and Emma Stone to produce. The Hollywood Reporter said the deals were still being worked out, and no release date had been announced by 25 September 2026.
3. 3.A Viswanathan Anand biopic: announced in 2020 with Anand L. Rai as director; a 2024 report named A. L. Vijay. We found no news of it in 2026.
4. 4.Candidates: a documentary on Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Nihal Sarin and Vaishali by Dopamine Media, ChessBase India and Camera and Shots, announced in December 2024 for release in 2025. We found no release by September 2026.

No other chess film or series had a release date on 25 September 2026.

The real thing is on this year: the World Chess Championship 2026, D Gukesh against Javokhir Sindarov, runs in Geneva from 24 November to 12 December. If a film has made you want to play, how to play chess for beginners covers the rules, and the free analysis board shows the move where a game turned. Zapp Chess is built for many short games: every game starts from a curated middlegame position with the pieces already developed, and the winner is the first to go two points of material ahead or give checkmate. Install the free app for Android or iPhone to play.

How we picked

We counted how many of nine chess-movie lists name each film. Six are the lists on the first page of Google for "chess movies" in India and the United States on 25 September 2026: Chess.com, TheChessWorld, House of Staunton, an IMDb list, a Reddit r/chess list and a Substack essay that ranks every chess movie. The other three are longer lists from Premier Chess, Smarthouse Creative and a Chess.com member blog. Films named by the same number of lists are ordered by their Rotten Tomatoes critics score; films with no score come last, oldest first.

The ranked list holds feature films; documentaries and TV series are in their own sections. We left out The Coldest Game (2019): three lists name it, but it has almost no chess and a critics score of 17%.

A critics score is the share of positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Where to watch is from JustWatch India and JustWatch US on 25 September 2026: we list subscription services and free services with ads, not rentals, and "none found" means we found neither in that country. Streaming deals change often, so check the service before you plan a film night.

Chess movies FAQ

Facts on this page were checked on 25 September 2026. The ranking counts nine chess-movie lists, named in How we picked. Critics scores are Rotten Tomatoes scores with the number of reviews, where to watch is from JustWatch India and JustWatch US, ages are Common Sense Media's, and ratings are US film or TV ratings; all were fetched that day. Other sources: the studios, distributors and film bodies (Paramount, Disney, Sony Pictures Classics, Kino Lorber, Film Movement, Swiss Films and the New Zealand Film Commission), Netflix, the Television Academy, the Golden Globes, the Academy Awards, the Sundance, Tribeca, Venice and Seattle film festivals, PBS, Chess.com, ChessBase, ChessBase India, Slate, Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, The Indian Express, The Hindu and Rediff. Sources differ on some running times: Searching for Bobby Fischer is 111 minutes at Paramount and 110 at Rotten Tomatoes, Dangerous Moves 110 at Swiss Films and 100 at Rotten Tomatoes, and Shatranj Ke Khilari 121 at Venice, 129 at Rotten Tomatoes and 115 on Prime Video. This page gives the studio's, distributor's or festival's figure where there is one.