YMMV / Chess (1984)

• Adaptation Displacement: It's not hard to find people who know and love "One Night in Bangkok", but have no idea that it came from this musical.
  • The same could also be said (though to a lesser extent) of "I Know Him So Well".
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Anatoly Sergievsky—troubled Anti-Hero pulled apart by the demands of everyone in his life who eventually decides to stand up for himself? Or a spoiled Jerkass whose great success and beautiful family aren't enough, so he abandons the latter, and eventually admits his first obligation is to himself?
  • "The Game of Chess" — is it really about the backstory of the game itself, or is it about the Manipulative Bastard who invented the game purely to get his mother on his side to betray his brother.
  • Thanks to the sheer number of versions of the show, pretty much every single main character has several alternate interpretations available:
    • Florence - Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who is happy to knowingly either or both men to advance her career and gain leverage for her father, or complete woobie who is just as much an Unwitting Pawn as the rest of them and who genuinely regrets the way her relationship(s) turn out?
    • Freddie - complete He-Man Woman Hater who also happens to be something of a Psychopathic Man Child and only tries to talk Anatoly into winning in order to facilitate a breakup with Florence so she'll come running back to him, or Jerkass Woobie who becomes an Unwitting Pawn and eventually reaches a conclusion of I Want My Beloved to Be Happy?
    • Molokov and Walter - a pair of manipulative bastards who don't care at all about anyone else, or Punch-Clock Villains who genuinely think they're doing what's best for their respective countries?
• Americans Hate Tingle: At least in the 1980s, Thais weren't fond of "One Night in Bangkok" due to the song promoting an orientalist (the song even using that word) and stereotypical view of Thailand, which lead to the Thai government banning the song in 1985.
• Awesome Music:
  • The musical is obscure enough that many people only know of it because of the song "One Night in Bangkok", which hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, and was #1 in many European markets. Murray Head would be a One-Hit Wonder for it if not for a song from the original concept album for Jesus Christ Superstar hitting the Top 20 in the United States in 1969.
  • The sheer complexity of "Quartet (A Model of Decorum and Tranquility)" is also worth mentioning.
  • For a throwaway number from a minor character, "The Arbiter" is surprisingly strong, with a rock beat that establishes where the real power lies at the board.
• Badass Decay: The versions that have "Pity the Child" in the first act result in Freddie becoming Walter's puppet without anything to save his character from being anything more than a Jerkass pawn with delusions of grandeur.
• Broken Base: Few things in the history of the show have been more divisive than Idina Menzel's portrayal of Florence in the 2008 concert.
• Designated Hero: Deconstructed. Freddie is a Decoy Protagonist in some advertising, with Florence as the actual protagonist. Florence is still an adulterer who's arguably committing treason.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Freddie seems to get this a lot from the fanfic writers, but not so much from the rest of the fandom.
  • See the entry for Alternative Character Interpretation above. The latter interpretation leaves Anatoly as an even bigger a-hole than Freddie, so naturally the fangirls are gonna set about making him even more sympathetic.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The 2006 World Championship match, anyone? Danailov would fit perfectly into this show.
• Tear Jerker: Many folk who, for their own reasons, have had to leave the country they were born and raised in, have reported bursting into tears when they hear "Anthem."
  • "Someone Else's Story" is Florence's moment o clarity: Freddie doesn't and probably never loved her, and she realizes it objectively, just as she admits she's lying to herself about it even now. Set as a gentle, uplifting song, it's about a woman who forces herself to see the world as it really is, and that she's approaching the Despair Event Horizon, and can't change it. Potentially made even worse in versions of the show where it's Svetlana who sings this about Anatoly.
  • "I Know Him So Well" has at least one of Anatoly's lover or wife realize they're aware of his infidelity, but can't bring themselves to hate him (or, in some versions, each other).
  • "Nobody's Side" is Florence's Heroic BSoD. It's also her Leit Motif. Let that sink in.
  • Depending on the version, "Pity the Child" can be one of these, especially if you are/were a child of a broken home yourself.
• The Woobie: Mischa in the Swedish production. Maybe his grandma as well.
  • Depending on the production (and the actor), "Pity the Child" can almost turn Freddie into one.
  • Svetlana and Florence can be this, especially in "I Know Him So Well."
  • Molokov, of all people, in the Swedish version. He gets a song unique to this version in which he wistfully tells Anatoly that he knows what he does is evil, but it's necessary for the advancement of their nation.

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