El documental cubre la historia de la final del Campeonato Mundial de Ajedrez de 1978 entre el protegido del Partido Comunista, Anatoly Karpov, y el desertor soviético, Viktor Korchnoi.
Interwoven portraits of Anatoli Karpov and Garry Kasparov, whose 25-year bitter rivalry accompanied the fall of the USSR. The story of a duel between two chess giants, fighting a personal war in a world gone to ruin. This battle of black and white was more than a face-off over a chessboard. Part psychological drama, part political thriller, the film brings to life their hostilities, nested like Russian dolls. Karpov vs. Kasparov represents the battle between the faltering empire and the young liberals several steps ahead of the game, checkmating the old guard. Or how two stories – the societal one and the personal one – started out separately and ended up superimposed, twining together into one tale.
Oleg, the host of a TV show is asked to cover in his show a new ultramodern amusement park called "Park of the Soviet Period". The life in the park is an exaggerated version of the soviet life - pioneers parading, girls selling soda water on the street, socialist banners are everywhere, communist party decisions, free medical procedures, etc. When Oleg falls in love with a nurse he discovers that the rules of the Park forbid any personal contact with the staff, that was trained to live a very different life compared to the life in the world outside. As he fights to gain the heart of the nurse he finds deep flaws in the Utopian atmosphere of the park and decides he must do something about it.
En mayo de 1997, Garry Kaspárov, considerado el mejor jugador de todos los tiempos, jugó un match contra Deep Blue, una supercomputadora programada por científicos de IBM con el único propósito de jugar el más alto nivel de ajedrez.
Matthieu Carriere, who once starred in German director Volkor Schlondorff's breakthrough film Young Torless, turns director himself for Fool's Mate. Michael Marwitz plays a once-famous concert pianist and chess whiz. He compromises his talents by casting his lot with a group of self-destructive druggies and gamblers. Marwitz' new circle of friends effectively ruins his marriage to Victoria Tennant, an English architect. Fool's Mate makes no effort to cheer up its audience, but this sort of fare apparently is what the European film-festival circuit thrives on.
