[Part I: You and I]

[THE RUSSIAN]
Knowing I want you
Knowing I love you
I can't explain
Why I remain
Careless about you

[FLORENCE]
I've been a fool to allow
Dreams to become
Great expectations

[THE RUSSIAN]
How can I love you so much
Yet make no move?

[THE RUSSIAN & FLORENCE]
I pray the days and nights
In their endless weary procession
Soon overwhelm
My sad obsession

You and I
We've seen it all
Chasing our hearts' desire
But we go on pretending
Stories like ours
Have happy endings
[THE RUSSIAN]
You could not give me
More than you gave me
Why should there be
Something in me
Still discontented?

[FLORENCE]
I won't look back any more
And if I do—
Just for a moment

[THE RUSSIAN]
I'll soon be happy to say
I knew her then

[THE RUSSIAN & FLORENCE]
But if you hear today
I'm no longer quite so devoted
To this affair
I've been misquoted

You and I
We've seen it all
Chasing our hearts' desire
But we go on pretending
Stories like ours
Have happy endings
[Part II: The Story of Chess]

[ENSEMBLE]
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

[MEN & WOMEN]
Not much is known (Each game)
Of early days of chess (Of chess)
Beyond a fairly vague report (Means there's one less)
That fifteen hundred years ago two princes fought (Variation)
Though brothers, for a Hindu throne (Left to be played)

[WOMEN & MEN]
The mother cried (Each day)
For no one really likes (Got through)
Their offspring fighting to the death (Means one or two)
She begged to stop the slaughter (Less mis-)
With her every breath (Takes re-)
But sure enough one brother died (Main to be made)

Sad (And then)
Beyond belief (Such grief)
She told her winning son (Beyond belief)
"You have caused such grief (She said)
I can't forgive (She could)
This evil thing you've done" (Not forgive)
[TENORS, WOMEN, BASSES]
He tried to explain (He tried to explain) (He tried)
How things had really been (How things had really been) (In vain)
But he tried in vain (But he tried in vain) (How to explain)
No words of his (No words of his) (But that could not)
Could mollify the queen (Could mollify the queen) (Mollify)

[WOMEN & MEN]
And so he asked (He asked)
The wisest men he knew (Wise men)
The way to lessen her distress (Had to, what on)
They told him he'd be ([?])
Pretty certain to impress ([?])

[ENSEMBLE]
By using model soldiers
On a checkered board
To show it was his brother's fault
They thus invented chess

[TENOR SOLOIST & WOMEN]
Chess displayed (Each game of chess)
No inertia (Means there's one less)
Soon spread to Persia (Variation)
Then west (Left to be played)

[WOMEN & MEN]
Next the (Each day got through)
Arabs refined it (Means one or two)
Thus redesigned (Less mistakes)
It progressed (Remain to be made)

[MEN & WOMEN]
Still further west (West and)
And when Constantinople (More west)
Fell in 1453 (Chess moved, progressed)
One would have noticed (Seemed like)
Every other refugee (The world)
Included in his bags a set (Had one set)

[WOMEN & MEN]
Once in the hands and in the minds (Renaissance)
Of leading figures of the Renaissance (Gave chess the chance)
The spirit and the speed of chess (To reach)
Made swift advance (Parts most)
Through all of Europe's vital lands (Games do not reach)

[WOMEN & MEN]
Where we must record (Each game of chess)
The game was further changed right (Means there's one less)
Across the board the western touch (Variation)
Upon the pieces ranged (To be played)

[ENSEMBLE]
King and queen and rook
And bishop, knight and pawn
All took on the look
We know today
The modern game was born

[MEN]
And in the end
We see a game
That started by mistake in Hindustan
And boosted in the main
By what is now Iran

[ENSEMBLE]
Become the simplest
And most complicated
Pleasure yet devised
For just the kind of mind
That would appreciate this
Well-researched and fascinating yarn

[Part III: You and I Reprise]

[FLORENCE]
This is an all too familiar scene

[THE RUSSIAN]
Hopeless reflections on what might have been

[THE RUSSIAN & FLORENCE]
From all sides the incessant and burning question:

[FLORENCE]
"Bearing in mind your predicament now

[THE RUSSIAN]
What you did then

[THE RUSSIAN & FLORENCE]
We're just dying to know would you do it all again?"

[ENSEMBLE]
Each day we get through means one less mistake
There for the making

[THE RUSSIAN & FLORENCE]
But they know full well
It's not hard to tell
Though my heart is breaking
I'd give the world for that moment with you
When we thought we knew
That our love would last
But the moment passed
With no warning, far too fast

You and I
We've seen it all
Chasing our hearts' desire
But we go on pretending
Stories like ours
Have happy endings