The Story of Chess

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
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
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
Sad beyond belief
She told her winning son
«You have caused such grief
I can’t forgive
This evil thing you’ve done.»
He
Tried to explain
How things had really been
But
He tried in vain
No words of his
Could mollify the queen
And so he asked
The wisest men he knew
The way to lessen her distress
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--
They thus invented chess
Chess displayed no inertia
Soon spread to Persia
Then west
Next the Arabs refined it
Thus redesigned, it
Progressed
Still further yet
And when Constantinople
Fell in 1453
One would have noticed
Every other refugee
Included in his bags a set
Once in the hands
And in the minds
Of leading figures
Of the Renaissance--
The spirit and the speed
Of chess made swift advance
Through all of Europe’s vital lands
There we must record
The game was further changed--
Right across the board
The western touch
Upon the pieces ranged
Each game of chess
Means there’s one less
Variation left to be played
King, and queen, and rook
And bishop, knight, and pawn
All took on the look
We know today--
The modern game was born
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 appreciate this
Well-researched, and fascinating
Yarn
The World Chess Federation, of which I have the honour 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 against 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!