Back in the old days when the USCF had under way 10,000 members, there were less than 50 masters in the whole country and nobody ever dreamed there would be anything like chess engines that made millions of players armchair Grandmasters, a few of us living out in the vast American wilderness played postal chess. The USCF didn’t dabble in that form of the game; it was the domain of the Correspondence Chess League of America and Al Horowitz’ Chess Review, the Postal Chess Magazine.
There were books and pamphlets on openings, but almost everybody referred to Modern Chess Openings. Even Chess Life told you the page and column number of the opening when they published a game.
Over the board tournaments were scarce. For example, the May 1955 issue of Chess Life listed the following tournaments. It should be mentioned that in 1955 a dollar was worth about 9-1/2 of them today!
Hoboken, New Jersey. Entry fee $1.00. Prizes: Medal and other valuable prizes.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Entry fee $3.00. Cash and book prizes depending on entries.
Spokane, Washington. Entry fee $3.00. First prize $25.
Baltimore, Maryland. Entry fee $3.00 plus $3.00 deposit to be returned upon completion of all games. No prizes announced.
Beloit, Wisconsin. Entry fee $4.00. No prizes mentioned.
St. Paul, Minnesota. Entry fee $2.50. Trophy and cash.
Hutchinson, Kansas. Write TD for details.
Logansport, Indiana. $3.00 or $5.00 to be determined at players meeting. First place gets half the money.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Entry fee $10.00 with $5.00 refunded upon completion of all games. First prize of $150.00.
Phoenix, Arizona. Entry fee $5.00. No prizes announced.
Dallas, Texas. Entry fee $10.00. First prize $75.00.
Chicago, Illinois. Write for entry fee and details. $175.00 first prize.
Davenport, Iowa. Entry fee $7.00. $100.00 first prize.
So, for many players postal play was a way to play some serious chess. In fact, Chess Review had a few over the board masters playing and three or four times I played opponents who had actually participated in some of the old U.S. Championships. Naturally I lost, but I got to play them.
The great thing about postal chess was that sometimes an unheralded amateur could pull off a real brilliancy. I, myself, pulled off a few of them...at least I thought so until chess engines made their appearance.
I especially recall one brilliant game involving a sacrifice on my part that topped my list of brilliancies. Playing over it with an early engine revealed that my move that merited two exclamation marks actually allowed my opponent a mate in one, but he didn’t see it!
In the following game Dr. Maxwell Sturm plays some inspired chess. Sturm was a British consul who lived in Trinidad. His opponent was Lee T. Magee (April 11, 1928 – April 20, 2015, 87 years old) who was Nebraska State Champion in 1950, 1951, 1953 and 1955 and Omaha city champion in 1947, 1953, 1955 and 1956. On the 1955 USCF rating list he was rated 2160. While that rating might not seem very impressive today, at the time were were only 41 players in the country that had a Master rating which was then over 2300. A rating of 2100 - 2299 was classified as Expert.
The game was played in a Gambit Tournament. I played in a few and they were great fun. Sections were made up of 7 players with two games against each opponent. Players were supplied with the opening moves to 20 or so gambits and white got to choose which one was played in each game.
It’s unfortunate that engines have killed off playing chess this way and deprived amateurs of a moment of, if not glory, a great deal of personal satisfaction.
Of course even in those days most “real” players (i.e. OTB players) didn’t think much of postal chess. In one, for me, eye opening incident was when I had a game published in Chess Review and annotated by the legendary John W. Collins. Only one person out of about 20 at the chess club in the big city of Toledo, Ohio saw it. All he said was, “Saw your game.”
In one incident a TD announced free entry to titled players, so when a titled correspondence player showed up the TD refused him the free entry...correspondence titles didn’t count. In a way the TD was right because they are two different animals. If a titled OTB player wanted to play in a postal tournament they would have had to start at Class A (1800) and work their way up, so I guess it was fair.
[Event "CCLA Gambit Tournament"]
[Site "Correspondence"]
[Date "1950.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Dr. Maxwell Sturm"]
[Black "Lee T. Magee"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]
%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 {This is black's most
popular retreat. It gets out of the way of white's center Ps, and pins the
c3-P if white plays 6.d4, but it has the disadvantage of taking the a5-square
away from the N. Black usually has to retreat the B to b6 to allow ...Na5,
which is particularly strong when white opts for the Bc4, Qb3 approach. } 6.
d4 exd4 7. O-O Bb6 {Taking on c3 is not to be recommended because after 8.Qb3
white has strong pressure on f7 and with his B on a5 black can't play ...Na5.
} 8. cxd4 d6 9. Nc3 Na5 10. Bg5 {Black usually replies with 10...f6 which
weakens his K-side, but in practice he often manages to equalize. If black
plays 10...Ne7 white should avoid the temptation to sacrifice on f7 with
11.Bxf7+ because with correct play black can survive. It's never a good idea
to play a bad move and just hope your opponent won't find the best defense.
If black plays 10...Ne7 the best reply is 11.Nd5 which forces black to play
...f6 anyway. } 10... Qd7 {Blocking the B is not exactly bad, but it is
questionable. Sooner or later it's going to cost black another tempo. } 11.
Bb5 c6 12. e5 {I have christened this line the Rubicon Variation, said Dr.
Sturm. The idea is that the B on b5 is sacrificed to open the e-file, create
a passed P and allow white to use his lead in development to launch an attack.
(Sturm) In fact though all it does is lose a piece. Simply 12.Bd3 would have
left white a slight edge. } 12... cxb5 13. exd6 f6 {Dr. Sturm thought this may
be the best move, but adds that it is horribly cramping...it takes away f6
from the N and leaves his R locked in. Black could safely play 13...Nf6
because after 14.Re1+ Kf8 15 and in the long run is still a piece down..Bxf6
gxf6 black;s K-side it wrecked, but analysis will show that white really has
no satisfactory way to take advantage of it } 14. Re1+ Kf7 {14...Kf8 was a
little better...it threatens to take on g5 because white does not have the N
fork on the Q and K with Ne5+ available. White would then have to retreat the
B losing more time. } 15. Qe2 {Black should now play 15...Qe6 as white can
hardly afford to trade Qs. Black would then be able to get his B into play.
} 15... Qd8 16. Qxb5 {Better was 16.Nxb5, but even after this white has now
very nearly equalized. } 16... Nc6 17. Qd5+ {White could have seized the
advantage with 17.Qc4+ with would have allowed him to follow up with 18.d5. }
17... Kf8 18. Bf4 Bd7 19. Nb5 Rc8 {This loses. 19...Nb4 eliminates the
dangerous N after 20.Qc4 Nc2! 21.Qxc2 Bxb5. The chances would then be equal.
} 20. Nc7 g5 {After this move white is going to end up with a Q+2Ps vs R+2Ns+B
which normally should be sufficient compensation, but here his pieces are just
too uncoordinated to allow adequate defense. } 21. Nxg5 {Brilliant! } 21...
fxg5 22. Bxg5 Bxc7 23. Bxd8 {Nothing is more natural than to want to regain
the Q, but in doing so black is given new life. The correct move is 23.Re3
threatening a mating attack with Rf3+ If black prevents this with 23...Bg4
THEN white can play 24.Bxd8 Bxd8 25.d7 Rc7 and 26.Re8+ and black is lost
because he is going to lose material. } 23... Bxd8 {With the black B guarding
e8 the above line is no longer possible and black has sufficient resources to
defend his K. } 24. Re7 {White must throw more fuel on the fire because if
24.Qf3+ then simply 24...Nf3. } 24... Bxe7 25. dxe7+ Kxe7 26. Re1+ Kd8 27.
Qg5+ Nce7 {Wrong N! Now black is in effect playing without his N on g8 and R
on h8. With 27...Nge7 he could have gotten both pieces into play. } 28. d5
Rc5 {Yet another slip. With 28...h5 he could have gotten his R into play via
h7 or h6. White would still have been better but would have his work cut out
in proving he has enough of an advantage to win. } 29. Qe5 {Excellent! In
fact the only move. The tempting 29.Qg7 just won't cut it. After 29...Ng6
30.d5 Rf5 black has defensive resources and the game is up for grabs.} 29...
Ng6 30. Qb8+ Rc8 31. Qxa7 Rc2 {Now white could win a R through a series of
checks beginning with 32.Qa5+ Kc8 33.Qa8+ Kc7 34.d6+ Kxd6 35.Qb8+ Rc7 36.Rd1+
Ke6 37.Qxc7 but it doesn't matter because his next move is both simple and
enough to win. } 32. Qxb7 Nh6 {This allows a mate in 16 moves, but it is a
moot point.} 33. Qb6+ Kc8 34. Rb1 Bb5 35. Qxb5 Kc7 36. Qb6+ Kd7 {White has a
mate in 12 moves. } 37. Qe6+ {Dr. Sturm's concept at move 21 finally proves
justified. } 1-0
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