Word: chess
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Here comes Chess, the biggest new musical hit of the international theater season. A colorful satiric pageant about the political and romantic gamesmanship attending a world chess championship, the show has won raves from European critics for Lyricist Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita), Composers Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (of the Swedish pop quartet ABBA) and the piece's star, Elaine Paige. Chess has spun off two top-of-the-pops singles: the ballad I Know Him So Well resided at No. 1 in Britain for four weeks, and the insinuating disco rap One Night in Bangkok...
...clock touch with allies and moneymen across the country. "He's incredibly well plugged in," says a Wall Street financier. "One of his great strengths is that he has more sources than anyone." Notes an investment banker: "He's an absolutely brilliant poker player, though there's a little chess in his game...
...since September, and is said to have been treated for exhaustion and strain at a clinic for the party elite. Two weeks ago, Karpov, normally an icily precise defensive genius, began to blunder. Kasparov drove to victory in the 47th and then the 48th game. Meanwhile, he says, Soviet chess officials had begun quietly pressuring him to agree to end the match. Shortly thereafter, Campomanes appeared in Moscow, amid rumors that the Soviets, who are heavily represented in the world federation, had summoned him out of concern for Karpov's psychological health...
...reporting his action even before he spoke, and suspicion mounted that the Soviets had acted to protect their large investment in a status symbol they regard as a more suitable cultural ambassador at large than the youthful, half-Armenian, half-Jewish Kasparov. As David Spanier, British author of Total Chess, put it, Karpov is the ideal Soviet champion, "a very Russian Russian who follows the party line...
Reactions to the ruling worldwide varied from dismay to disgust. Said Iceland's former World Chess Federation President Fridrik Olafsson: "Endurance is a factor in all chess matches, and it is absurd to help the champion by giving him a respite." Quipped ex-Champ Spassky: "Campomanes should be called Karpomanes." Meanwhile, Karpov remains champion, and in September the confrontation will begin anew, with no score. In August the chess federation will meet in Graz, Austria, and is expected to go back to the old 24-game rule, ensuring that there will be no repeat of the Moscow marathon...