Arbiter: Each game of chess means there's one less Variation left to be played Each day got through means one or two Less mistakes remain to be made
Ensemble: Not much is known Of early days of chess beyond a fairly vague report
Male Solo: That fifteen hundred years ago two princes fought Though brothers, for a Hindu throne
Female Solo: Their mother cried For no-one really likes their offspring fighting to the death She begged them stop the slaughter with her every breath But sure enough one brother died
Female Ensemble: Sad beyond belief She told her winning son
Female Solo: You have caused such grief I can't forgive this evil thing you've done
Male Ensemble: He tried to explain How things had really been
Male Solo: But he tried in vain No words of his could mollify the queen
Female Solo: And so he asked the wisest men he knew The way to lessen her distress
Arbiter: They told him he'd be pretty certain to impress By using model soldiers on A chequered board to show it was his brother's fault
All: They thus invented chess
Male ensemble: Chess displayed no inertia Soon spread to Persia, then west
Female ensemble: Next the Arabs refined it, Thus redesigned, it progressed
Male Solo: Still further yet And when Constantinople fell in 1453 One would have noticed every other refugee Included in his bags a set
Female Solo: Once in the hands And in the minds of leading figures of the Renaissance
Male Solo: The spirit and the speed of chess made swift advance Through all of Europe's vital lands
Ensemble: Where we must record The game was further changed Right across the board The western touch upon the pieces ranged
King and queen and rook And bishop, knight and pawn All took on the look We know today, the modern game was born
Arbiter: And in the end We see a game that started by mistake in Hindustan And boosted in the main by what is now Iran Become the simplest and most obligating pleasure Yet defies what just the kind of mind who would appreciate This well researched and fascinating yarn