PROLOGUE - THE STORY OF CHESS

Budapest, Hungary, 1956. A small crowded room; people huddle under blankets while, in one corner, a father teaches his daughter an ancient game.

GREGOR
Florence, please concentrate.

Each game of chess means there's one less
Variation left 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 the 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

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 chequered board to show it was his brother's fault
They thus invented chess

Each game of chess means there's one less
Variation left to be played
Each day got through means one or two
Less mistakes....

(He is interrupted by gunfire, then evacuation. Gregor hands Florence to the first group to leave.)