The lyrics were translated by Aleksei Ivaschenko (Nord-Ost, Russian versions of The Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music). The show is mostly based on the West End version, but returns the track order of the original concept album. The prologue is set in Moscow, as in the Swedish version, and the rest of the show is set in Merano (Act I) and Bangkok (Act II). Walter was omitted and the songs "Florence and Molokov", "Anatoly and the Press", "One More Opponent", "Talking Chess" and "Finale" were removed. The song "Argument" was included. The chess games played on stage are actual historical chess games: Karpov-Korchnoi (1978) and Spassky-Fischer (1972) in Act I, and Karjakin-Caruana (2016) in Act II. Starting 7 April 2020, the omitted song "Merchandisers" was performed by the staff selling merchandise in the theater lobby during intermission.