My friend Ed Bogas, a musician whose work you’ve heard if you don’t recognize his name, wrote the subject head in his song “Chess by Mail”, for the album Deeper Blues by King Bishop and the Squares (highly recommended).
When I was 14, I took up correspondence chess, because my best friend was doing it.
I flamed out immediately. Correspondence chess was like my introduction to paying bills — an item without arrive in the mail, and it demanded my attention within three days.
40 years pass, and I’m playing tens of correspondence games per day, simplified immeasurably by Internet chess servers. They don’t call it “postal chess” or “correspondence chess” these days, but “daily”, because the time controls are still measured in days (rather than *seconds* — I’m serious; kids these days play chess games that can last no longer than 60 seconds at 30 seconds each).
Daily chess became my preferred format. If I have to play before noon, I’m hopeless — 11:59 a.m. is much too early to play chess, but 3:59 a.m., that’s just right (following a few days to think it over).
A chap at chess club told us about his current experience playing postal games the old-fashioned way, with postcards or letters. I thought to give it another try — I’m not 14 anymore, and have gained experience in tending to responsibilities delivered by the postman.
Rather than jump into the deep end of the US open championship tournament — in which you play against six opponents in four stages, lasting five years — I opted to test the water with a 4-player quadrangular.
A stamped postcard costs 69 cents these days, 61 cents for postage and 8 cents for the paper. That’s outrageous. Though remember what comedian Kathleen Madigan said about postal service: “You mean to tell me that for (the price of a stamp), you’ll take this to Alaska)”.
I mailed move 1 to opponents in Michigan, Washington, and Minnesota on 9/7, and have yet to receive a reply. Then I saw that the Michigan opponent was down to play a 6-game match through email, and I thought I’d try that, too.
Chess by email sounds like the worst of both worlds. You don’t have a dedicated chess server to keep track of everything, and you don’t get to pick up a pen. (I like pens. I feel a little unprepared the day’s events if I’m not carrying a Bic Cristal.)
Those games started 9/8, and I had the odd thought that an email game could be completed between one pair of moves in a game by post.
Heck, for all I know, that postal opponent hasn’t even received my postcard.