Chess is a
musical with music by
Benny Andersson and
Björn Ulvaeus, formerly of
ABBA, and with
lyrics by
Tim Rice. The story 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 (named Freddie Trumper in the stage version) 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.