- The first online game of chess took place over telegraph lines in 1844
- Telegraph hardware was simple but required constant monitoring for accuracy
- Grandmasters later used teletype and online platforms to play remotely
On November 26, 1844, two chess teams faced off while separated by 40 miles when the Washington Chess Club played a team in Baltimore using the newly built electric telegraph.
Three advisory members played on each side and sent motions over the wire. Washington opened with a pawn to center and Baltimore mirrored it.
This method allowed for an entire game without either team being physically present, marking what is considered the first online chess game.
Organization of telegraphed game
Alfred Vail and Henry Rogers developed a system for assigning numbers to each of the 64 fields, converting traditional descriptive notation into numerical codes.
Moves such as “pawn to queen’s bishop’s four” became “11 to 27”, simplifying transmission across the telegraph.
The system meticulously logged every play, including real-time corrections.
Although records of all games are incomplete, some sources report that 686 moves were transmitted without interruption.
Bystanders occasionally observed the process and operators recorded the number of people present.
The telegraph itself was simple and consisted of a battery, a switch and a magnet.
Despite its apparent simplicity, signals weakened over distance, wires snapped, and early equipment often failed, so consistent monitoring of the line was needed to ensure accurate reception.
The Baltimore-Washington telegraph ran along railroad tracks, and overhead insulated copper wire replaced failed underground attempts.
Despite Congress funding the initial line, practical day-to-day use remained minimal, and most of the activity consisted of demonstrations and curiosity-driven experiments.
Telegraph chess inspired similar experiments abroad, including matches between London and Gosport in 1845.
Later, American Grandmaster Bobby Fischer transmitted moves from New York to Havana in 1965 via teletype.
In a promotional game in 1999, Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov played an online game against “the world”.
Today, the Internet has taken telecom chess to amazing new heights, with one site alone, chess.com, hosting up to 20 million games daily, sometimes pushing server capacity.
Chess is particularly compatible with telecommunications because it can be transmitted as concise, precise information.
Why have technologists taken the opportunity to play chess using so many generations of telecommunications?
This is probably because chess is popular and inherently suited to long-distance play.
“There are similarities in thought processes [between] engineering design and the kind of puzzle solving that a game of chess involves,” says Kazdan of Case Western Reserve.
However, this relationship can be one-sided. “Many engineers like chess. I’m not sure many chess players like engineering.”
Via AOL
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