The auditions for Chess took place at the Prince of Wales theatre and the Lyric theatre in London's West End between August and October 1985.

There were 700 candidates who were hoping for a role in the show and in total Michael Bennett sat through 1300 auditions due to applicants being called back four or five times. The process was long and tiring, especially with hundreds of renditions of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" and "I Don't Know How To Love Him". All the candidates had to be able to sing and dance but most importantly whistle! ("Merano" wouldn't be the same otherwise!)

There was only one role cast for certain and that was the part of Florence, the American's second, who would be played by Elaine Paige as on the concept album. The other artistes from the album were either unsure or definitely didn't want to perform the characters on stage. Barbara Dickson had declined when offered the part of Svetlana because the character had only two songs and was only on stage for a tiny fraction of the show. Dennis Quilley also refused the part of Molokov. Tommy Korberg and Murray Head were unsure at this early stage whether or not they wanted to repeat their performances from the studio album.

Many of the applicants for the part of Svetlana had excellent voices and good ranges but had to be turned down because of their height. If they were too tall they would look out of place standing next to Elaine Paige during the song "I Know Him So Well".

After three months of gruelling auditions, it was finally over as all the parts were cast. The last day of auditions was set aside for finding under-studies for the major roles from the already selected chorus.

The actors cast for the major roles were as follows:

Florence       -   Elaine Paige Freddie        -   Murray Head Anatoly        -   Tommy Koerberg Svetlana       -   Siobhan Mc Carthy The Arbiter  -   Tom Jobe Molokov     -    John Turner