In this rock musical, the ancient game becomes a metaphor for romantic rivalries, competitive gamesmanship, super power politics, and international intrigue. The pawns in this drama form a love triangle: the loutish American chess star, the earnest Russian champion and a Hungarian American female assistant who arrives at the international chess match in Bangkok with the American but falls for the Russian. From Bangkok to Budapest the players, lovers, politicians, and spies manipulate and are manipulated.