I don't know if I'd go that far, but I don't consider the Roth-Michael confrontation to be a first class story. I don't find Michael to be all that compelling as a protagonist, and for the movie to be a really interesting chess game Roth would have to be seen plotting on his own. The real value of the film, to me, is found in the Micheal-Fredo story line, in which Michael is the greater villain, and in the flashbacks to young Vito's life.