AMONG the many jejune genres of Hollywood movies, not the least paltry is the problemless problem film, of which Searching for Bobby Fischer is a prime example. Based on a book by the sportswriter Fred Waitzkin, it is the story of Waitzkin, his wife, Bonnie, and their son, Josh, the chess prodigy. What should be done when a seven-year-old evinces, seemingly out of nowhere, a spectacular talent for chess, which may make him a champion, but also deprive him of the needed normal childhood? Perhaps even a normal adulthood; do I not read in the New York Times that Nigel Short ...

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