PAWN SACRIFIC-Historic Chess Match Made Suspenseful?

Dir Edward Zwick (Shakespeare in Love & Traffic) has made a biopic feature about Bobby Fischer, the 1st Amer. to win the world title chess championship played for the spoils of a cold war with Russia during the 1970's.  Despite the convincing moves of world class actors Tobey McGuire (Bobby Fischer,) Lieve Schrieber (Boris Spasky) and Peter Saarsgaad (as a benevolent priest and voice of reason) the movie never rises above tepid.  As riveting as the chess match between the young Bobby Fisher and the Russian demagogue Boris Spassky was in '72, in retrospect it fails to mark a significant check mark on the eon.  The calculated study of Fischer shows a determined young man whose mastery of chess rises as his sanity is overtaken by paranoia.  Fischer's genius lead him down the rabbit hole.  McGuire evokes pathos and sympathy but the overshadowing mania take center stage.  Fischer is credited with endearing chess to a generation much like Harry Potter awoke young bibliophiles.  The strategic plodding towards a foregone match and Fischer's mental demise & fall from grace do not add up to a winning film.