The Story of Chess (Live)
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 them 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.
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 them 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.
Credits
Writer(s): Tim Rice, Benny Goran Bror Andersson, Bjoern K. Ulvaeus
Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com
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