Freddie:
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


Cast:
Not much is known

Of early days of chess beyond a fairly vague report
That fifteen hundred years ago two princes fought
Though brothers, for a Hindu throne


Svetlana:
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


Cast:
Sad beyond belief

She told her winning son
Svetlana:
You have caused such grief

I can't forgive this evil thing you've done

Freddie:

He tried to explain
How things had really been
But he tried in vain

No words of his could mollify the queen
Florence:
And so he asked the wisest men he knew

The way to lessen her distress

Freddie:

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


Freddie and Anatoly:
Chess displayed no inertia

Soon spread to Persia, then west

Florence and Svetlana:

Next the Arabs refined it,
Thus redesigned, it progressed


Anatoly:
Still further yet
And when Constantinople fell in 1453

One would have noticed every other refugee
Included in his bags a set


Svetlana:
Once in the hands
And in the minds of leading figures of the Renaissance


Freddie:
The spirit and the speed of chess made swift advance

Through all of Europe's vital lands

Cast:

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


Freddie:
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