Sunday, November 22, 2009

Chess amongst the penguins

The name R.A. Buckland holds a special place in the history of Australian correspondence chess. Not because of his playing strength or results, both of which were respectable, but because of his method of play. Mr. Buckland for some years in the 1970’s worked in Antarctica at the Australian research bases.
His moves were transmitted by radioteletype to an intermediary in Sydney who decoded them and posted them on. The radio link was spasmodic and at the mercy of the weather, but transmission errors were few and opponents were understanding.
One doubts that todays webservers could be so understanding.
Part of the inexhaustible variety of postal chess, an art form on EVERY continent.