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Wednesday, December 28, 2016


"What did the title of today's mailing have to do with Chess?" -Linda


The line, "...a Show with everything but Yul Brynner," probably means a little more to people who were kids in the 1980s, like me, than the younger (or older) generation. It comes from a song entitled 'One Night in Bangkok' from 1984 sung by British actor and singer Murray Head.

The song is from the concept album and subsequent musical 'Chess' by Tim Rice, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.

It peaked at no. 3 in both Canada and the United States in May 1985.

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Today's Random Fact:

The story of 'Chess' involves a politically driven, Cold War-era chess tournament between two men-an American grandmaster and a Soviet grandmaster-and their fight over a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other. Although the protagonists were not intended to represent any real individuals, the character of the American grandmaster was loosely based on Bobby Fischer, while elements of the story may have been inspired by the chess careers of Russian grandmasters Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov.

The lyrics mention actor Yul Brynner, who famously played the King of Siam (Thailand's former name) in the Broadway musical and the 1956 film The King and I.




Bonus Fact:

Bobby Fischer (1943 - 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. Many consider him to be the greatest chess player of all time. In 1972, he captured the World Chess Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match held in Reykjavik, Iceland

At age 15, Fischer became both the youngest grandmaster up to that time and the youngest candidate for the World Championship.

At age 20, Fischer won the 1963-64 U.S. Championship with 11/11, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament.