Hacker Cinema
Barbaric Genius
2012 · Film · documentary
Directed by Paul Duane
The remarkable story of John Healy's rise from wino and street thief to chess master and award-winning author.
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This makes me think about John Healy's autobiography The Grass Arena[1] which was later turned into a film.
His unfortunate childhood lead him into severe alcoholism despite being a promising boxer. He ended up living a rough life on the streets of London, moving in and out of prison.
On one of his stints inside he was taught chess and it turned his life around.
It's pretty raw but a good book and worth a read IMHO.
There's also a documentary about John Healy called Barbaric Genius[2], which I think is on Netflix and other streaming services.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grass_Arena
2. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1482452/