Goofs

None of the chess clocks are really running when they are shown, the little red second indicator never moves on any of them.

When Josh's mom throws Bruce out of her house, he gets up from the table twice.

The baseball scene opens with Roberto Alomar hitting a ground ball to the second baseman. Minutes later it cuts back to the ball game and Roberto Alomar is up again and hits another ball to the second baseman. Easy to miss considering the first time he is batting right handed and the second time he is batting left handed. Roberto Alomar was a switch hitter though and it is clearly him. Also could be noted that there is a different pitcher for each occurrence. Left Handed pitcher the first ball hit, and a right handed pitcher the next one.

When Josh and Fred Waitzkin are playing chess, Fred picks up a bishop and puts down a rook.

There are numerous mismatched shots of games in the film. In the final game, Josh moves his queen early in the game, yet later it can be seen on its starting square. In the first game he plays in the park against the old man who beat Tal, as he makes his first move there are already several pieces from both sides deployed on the board. In the first game against his dad, the father picks up a bishop in one shot and a second later sets down a rook to mate Josh.

Josh tells Vinnie he learned the "Schliemann Attack" from his teacher. Actually there's no such thing. It's the Schliemann Defense. Also, when Vinnie asks, "What's that?" referring to the "attack," Josh actually hasn't yet made the move that would prompt him to say this, he's just playing the opening move of the standard Ruy Lopez (1. ... e5), so there'd be no reason for Vinnie to say "What's that?" at that point. The move that makes it "Schliemann" (3. ...f5) hasn't yet been played.

The supposedly winning combination in the final game between Josh and Poe is unsound. Poe could have drawn the game by playing his pawn to h5 instead of his king taking the knight on e5.

"Errors" such as the McDonalds cups seen in the movie being from the early 90s and not mid-80s are not goofs. Although the real life events happened in the mid-80s, the movie makes no attempt at all to stay in period. The cars, computers, clothes, etc., are contemporary to the film and not from the 80s.

Ben Kingsley portrays Bruce Pandolfini as speaking with an Irish accent, whereas he was a New Yorker of Italian and Jewish heritage. However, Kingsley has stated that the film isn't a strict documentary recreation of events, but a dramatisation: his decision to play the role with an Irish accent was a deliberate acting choice, rather than a mistake.

Josh hits the clock button at the start of his match with Jonathan, but in the next shot the button on his side is still raised.

After he works out the sequence of moves which will win the game, Josh offers Jonathan a draw before making his move. Proper chess etiquette dictates that a player only offer a draw AFTER making a move.

When Josh is watching Vinnie play Shirazi, Katya (Josh's sister) looks up at her mother and says, "Joan, I want to go home".

At one point in the last match, Poe who is playing white picks up a black pawn and plays it.