[Time code];

An odd little coincidence. Six years ago tomorrow, I wrote the first version of Wikipedia’s article on the musical Chess. A few bits of that draft are still in the current article, including a very convenient phrase I used to describe the plot:

The story involves a romantic triangle between two players in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other.

It’s that last bit that somehow quickly gets across the whole “this is not going to end well” concept of the show. Not a big deal, just atypically efficient writing for me.

So, amusing to notice it appearing nearly verbatim in PBS’ page for the Great Performances broadcast of Chess in Concert a few weeks ago:

… the East/West Chess Championship and the romantic triangle that develops between the Russian and American competitors and the beautiful woman who manages one and falls in love with the other.

Looks like someone used Wikipedia to write their blurb. Which is entirely sensible, just a total giveaway when you take the best bits verbatim.

For what it’s worth, I almost never contribute to Wikipedia anymore: as a reader, almost any interesting topics or excellent writing that I find gets deleted eventually, and that’s a huge disincentive. To steal someone else’s phrase, Wikipedia has forgotten more great writing than I’ll ever know.