♟︎♟︎♟︎CHESS♟︎♟︎♟︎
Welcome to the crème de la crème of the Chess shrine world :-)
Chess is a musical from the 1980s about, well, chess! (And the Cold War and love and betrayal and being pawns in a greater game. But also chess.)
It's one of my favourite musicals in the entire world :-) Also the music is composed by ABBA members and is the origin of hit eighties song One Night In Bangkok if that sweetens the pot for anyone.
SO WHAT'S CHESS?
The musical is (usually) set during two world chess championships following each other. The first game, in Merano, Italy, is between the American champion, Frederick "Freddie" Trumper, and the Soviet challenger Anatoly Sergievsky. Tensions between East and West in the midst of the Cold War draw large crowds to this game, intent on seeing how the childish champion who "revitalised chess single-handed" and who is much more interested in the money and fame than the game itself squares up against the up-and-coming Russian. Behind the scenes, political and interpersonal tensions reach their respective breaking points; culminating in Florence Vassy, Hungarian-born British immigrant and Freddie's assistant/second/lover? falling for Anatoly and helping him defect to the West after he takes the crown from the increasingly paranoid American.
The next act opens in Bangkok, with Anatoly playing against a new Russian challenger, Leonid Viigand, and just like before, politics gets in the way of the game. The US wants political prisoners back, the USSR its star player, and they arrange a deal - Anatoly has to lose the match and go home in return for them. Among the prisoners is Florence's father, presumed dead after the 1956 revolution. And to put the icing on the cake, Anatoly's wife is here as well, threatened by the Soviet government and trying to convince her husband to come home to her and their two children. In the meantime, Freddie is there initially stirring shit as a reporter, the having an epiphany after failing to convince Anatoly to take the deal and Florence to come back to him, and finally urging Anatoly to win. Anatoly ends up remaining champion, unable to let go of his ambition ("winning for chess"), but returns home. Florence is heartbroken, but at least she'll get her father back, right..? WRONG! It turns out he might not even be alive.
...or, in one version, anyway. Chess has gone through as many rewrites as there are stars in the sky. Sometimes Anatoly plays against Freddie again in act 2, sometimes Florence's father is alive, sometimes he isn't but someone pretends to be her father, sometimes Anatoly throws the match. The plot I just summarised is loosely the same as the one they showed in the West End, and matches up mostly with the original concept album as well (minus the Florence's father plotline, which is a bit different there). The Broadway version has significant changes, most importantly that the Act II match is a continuation of the first act, with Freddie usually winning due to Anatoly throwing the match, and there are several off-broadway versions based off of that plot structure with various levels of weirdness. Shoutout to the 12-14 hoodlums who beat Freddie up the one time.
Feel free to click on the album covers on the side to see my thoughts on some versions!
CHARACTERS
THE AMERICAN
Frederick "Freddie" Trumper! A chess-player since he was nine, using it as an escape from family troubles. His father left them when he was twelve, then his mother's rotating cast of lovers only made him feel more alienated. He is described as having "revitalised chess single-handed". His chess technique is unpredictable, he's regarded by many as a lunatic, and he often puts on a show of tantrums, walking out mid-game and so on. This earns him lots of money, though by the time canon rolls around, he's slipping and is past his prime. He is extremely paranoid and unreasonable at this point, and is prefectly willing to use Florence's dead father as a way to hurt her when he (incorrectly) thinks she's helping his opponent. He sucks! However. I do find him a delightful character, for some reason. He gets very deep into the web of Global TV, implied to be a CIA front, and becomes truly nothing more than a pawn in the Cold War, more directly puppeted than either Florence or Anatoly. Later, he goes through a complete 180 and decides once again that chess is all that matters - to the point where his last line in the show is "64 squares, they're the reason you know you exist". His character arc fascinates me and Pity the Child (Adam Pascal's version is my personal fav, but the original with Murray Head is worth a listen also) is a great song :-) he is my worstie and my horrible little man it's complicated i want him dead sometimes.
THE RUSSIAN
Anatoly Sergievsky! He's Russian! He has a wife, Svetlana, and two unnamed small children. He find himself depely unhappy and unfulfilled despite being one of the best chess players in the world, and distrusting of his superiors who want him to secure his victory by seducing Florence and not just through being a good player. He defects, leaving his family behind who promptly get threatened by the government if his wife doesn't convince him to come back in Act 2, and still feels conflicted despite the happiness of his entire family, his mistress, and her father all hanging on him losing. He does what's best for him and him alone and wins while going back to his darling homeland, and while technically speaking everyone wins (in theory his wife still hates him his country still hates him he'll never see Florence again), he's still an enormous asshole come the fuck on now! Whatever he also compels me. (Recurring theme with Chess characters, you'll notice.)
FLORENCE VASSY
She doesn't have a silly little code name from when they didn't have names in the concept album for the main characters sorry :-( She's my best friend I love her so much. She's from Hungary! Born (presumably) in 1951, (presumably) in Budapest, left Hungary in late 1956 during the revolution and moved to England as an orphan. She became Freddie's second/personal assitant in (presumably) 1972, which she did for seven entire years despite Freddie being a Grade A dickhead. (I say presumably so much because nothing is ever confirmed. The American characters frequently say 1956 was thirty years ago despite it establishedly being 1979) Then she moved on to being the second and mistress to Anatoly, person-wise an upgrade but politics leaving her alone-wise a definite loss. Other characters frequently ascribe political aspirations to her that aren't really shown, at least not to the extent they (Freddie usually let's be honest) tend to imply. She does care about East and West, and harbors quite a bit of resentment towards the USSR, understandably, but her first solo song is titled Nobody's Side for crying out loud (sidenote - Florence and Molokov and 1956 set up Nobody's Side so well, both showing her unwillingness to be on either side so to speak. In the specific cases of Freddie and Molokov I mean; she does very much choose the West haha.) Take my hand Florence I could treat you better than your chess men...
WALTER DE COURCEY AND ALEXANDER MOLKOV
I'm combining them into one bc they're basically the same thing in slightly different fonts. Implied sometimes more, sometimes less heavily to be agents of their respective secret services, they make deals and generally care about their country's wellbeing more than their employees'. Anyone who says Freddie is the antagonist is WRONG it's these two come on.. Arguably Walter is painted in a slightly better light but as established this work leans towards sympathising with the West even though making at least an attempt of being neutral-like. Still, Walter is by no means entirely sympathetic, either - when the show is done right (in my opinion) everyone is varying shades of gray.
SVETLANA SERGIEVSKAYA
Svetlana isn't too deeply developed, mostly known to us as a caring mother and wife, holding up a mirror to Anatoly showing him just how warped his image of the perfect, Soviet, successful chess grandmaster family man has become. Still, I love her.
LEONID VIIGAND
He, like Svetlana, is mostly a mystery, but even more so. He has two lines in the entire show there's literally nothing to say here but I wanted to include him I feel bad... My favourite fan interpretation is this fic by nickclose
(ABRIDGED) HISTORY
Tim Rice had been wanting to make a musical about the Cold War for a while. He, Björn Ulvaeus, and Benny Andersson (the two Bs from ABBA!) started working on the musical in late 1981. They began recording the concept album in 1983. The concept album came out in 1984, and there were several concerts before the West End opening in 1986. The completely redesigned Chess, filled with all-new dialogue where the original had barely any, opened on Broadway in 1988, and closed after 68 performances. Later there were further versions: Chess in Concert-s, several loosely Broadway-based versions in the nineties in the USA and Australia, 1992 over here in Hungary, Chess på Svenska in 2002, "Space Chess" in Germany in 2011. Chess in Concert in Royal Albert Hall, London, in 2008 has a special place in my heart as well, I have the album recording downloaded and everything. This is nowhere near exhaustive, but some highlights only. Also, from 2010 onwards there have been occasional Chess productions in my home country of Hungary and I'm utterly overjoyed to say that I've been to one of them!!! :-D
IDEAL VERSION?
With this many version out there, one has to wonder about what would suit one's tastes perfectly. Plot-wise I would stick to a concept-album-esque plot progression, keeping You and I/The Story of Chess as it was instead of bringing The Story of Chess to the front I think that's so dumb sorry. Someone Else's Story can stay with Svetlana though that's fun. Keep Heaven Help My Heart in act 2 as well!! that's definitely one of the worse changes in my opinion. I think a case can be made for reversing the order of I Know Him So Well and Talking Chess (my best friend Talking Chess) as well... hmm. ANYWAYS staging-wise they need interesting outfits please I'm on my knees take a leaf out of 2011 german chess' book please. Make it WEIRDER. Ugly eighties outfits or bust! Put fucking checkered patterns on them like a chessboard or race-car I don't care. Keep the colour symbolism but make it more exciting! Give Florence colour-coded acessories depending on who she's with! Have her take off her Freddie Scarf or whatever during Nobody's Side and Mountain duet and Forence Quits! Gayass matching with Svetlana on the Anatoly front later! Anatoly still being colour-coded upon defecting but keeping the USSR colour on in a subtle way! Freddie's colours getting more muted as time goes on! Get creative! Please!!!!!!! Khm. Anyway.
SO WHERE THE HELL DO I START?
In my opinion, the best place would be the concept album. If that piques your interest, then either RAH (RAH=Royal Albert Hall. Chess in Concert 2008) or Long Beach, depending on how adventurous you're feeling - long beach is objectively better but you should be prepared for the plot being very different.
LINKS
spotifies (or spotifys if you so prefer):
