The 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.



Soloists 1 & 2:

Not much is known

Of early days of chess

Beyond a fairly vague report--



Soloist 3:

That fifteen hundred years ago

Two princes fought, 

Tough brothers, 

For a Hindu throne.



Soloist 4:

The mother cried, 

For no one really likes

Their offspring fighting

To the death.

She begged to stop

The slaughter

With her every breath.



Soloist 5:

But sure enough

One brother died.



Soloists 4 & 6:

Sad beyond belief, 

She told her winning son, 



Soloist 6:

"You have caused such grief

I can't forgive

This evil thing you've done."



Soloist 3 & 7:

He tried to explain

How things had really been.



Soloist 7:

But he tried in vain, 

No words of his

Could mollify the queen.



Soloist 8:

And so he asked

The wisest men he knew

The way to lessen her distress.



The Arbiter:

They told him he'd be

Pretty certain to impress

By using model soldiers

On a checkered board

To show it was his brother's fault--



All:

They thus invented chess



Male Soloists:

Chess displayed no inertia, 

Soon spread to Persia, 

Then west.



Female Soloists:

Next the Arabs refined it, 

Thus redesigned, it

Progressed.



Soloist 9:

Still further yet, 

And when Constantinople

Fell in 1453, 

One would have noticed

Every other refugee

Included in his bags a set.



Soloist 10:

Once in the hands, 

And in the minds

Of leading figures

Of the Renaissance--



Soloist 2:

The spirit and the speed

Of chess made swift advance

Through all of Europe's vital lands.



Female Soloists: Male Soloists:

Where we must record Each game of chess, 

The game was further changed-- Means there's one less

Right across the board Variation left to be played.

The western touch

Upon the pieces ranged.



Soloists:

King, and queen, and rook, 

And bishop, knight, and pawn

All took on the look

We know today--

The modern game was born.



The 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 complicated

Pleasure yet devised

For just the kind of mind

Who would appriciate this

Well-researched, and fascinating

Yarn.



[Spoken]

The World Chess Federation, of which I have the honor

Of being president, announces that the next world championship

Will take place here in Merano, Italy.



The current world champion Frederick Trumper of the United

States of America will defend his title again Anatoly Sergievsky

Of the Soviet Union.



The first player to achieve six victories will be declared

Champion. The first game will begin on March 27, 1979.



Welcome, world, to Merano!