Chess

Chess is a musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, formerly of ABBA. The story involves a romantic triangle between two players in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other. Although the protagonists were not intended to represent any specific individuals, the characters personalities are loosely based on those of Victor Korchnoi and Bobby Fischer and the oddity of the Merano championship in the musical is based on the similar oddities which occurred during the 1978 World Championship between Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov.

Following the pattern of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, a concept album was recorded and released in 1984, before any stage production was underway. A single from the album, "One Night In Bangkok", sung by Murray Head, was an unlikely top-40 hit in the US, and the duet, "I Know Him So Well", by Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson, held the number one spot on the UK singles charts for 4 weeks in February 1985.

Chess premiered in London's West End in 1986 and played for three years. A Broadway version opened in 1988, but the shifting political winds in the Eastern Bloc blunted its relevance. Radical rewrites attempted to keep the show topical, and a touring production in 1989 actually brought a writer along to continue updating it as current events warranted. But it still got poor reviews and the Broadway production closed after just eight weeks. It is occasionally produced by regional theatrical companies, sometimes merging elements from both versions. Chess-Baltimore, a version that opened on March 19, 2004, is based on the Broadway version.