In the original London production of Chess, the setting for the song is an interview by Freddie, who is in Bangkok to serve as a TV analyst for a match involving his rival, world champion and Russian defector Anatoly Sergievsky.
The lyrics mention actor Yul Brynner, about six months before his death, who had famously played the King of Siam in the Broadway musical and the 1956 film The King and I.
The "Tyrolean spa" mentioned early in the song refers to Merano in the South Tyrol region of Italy.
It mentions three places where chess tournaments were previously held: Iceland; the Philippines; and Hastings, UK.
The song was also re-released on Murray Head's album Watching Ourselves Go By in 1990.