The Story of Chess

ARBITER
 Each game of chess
 Means there's one less
 Variation yet 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 this 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
 ARBITER
 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
 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
 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 appreciate
 This well-researched and fascinating yarn
 (spoken)
 The International Chess Federation, of which I have the honor of being president, announces the next World Championship will take place 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 twenty-seventh.