On the Russian steppes, the people of the Republic of Kalmykia follow their young and charismatic leader, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, in his relentless and boundless pursuit of chess. As President of the World Chess Federation, Kirsan sees the game as his nation’s greatest hope and promise. While this film has some of the structure of a competition documentary so common these days—we meet students coached by tough instructors from a very young age—the exoticism of its subject takes the viewer to another plane. The game may be limited to its 64 squares, but the national dedication to chess is calculated to raise Kalmykia to untold heights not only in this world, but throughout the universe. And to that end, Kalmykia has built Chess City, a modern community unlike any other in the world. As Kirsan says, “Religions come and go, but chess is forever.”  TBW