AJuly 06 1944
Minneapolis Daily Times, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Thursday, July 06, 1944
World Is His Chessboard
Plays 300 Everywhere at Once
Charles M. Hardinge
He gambles with his gambits.
To the uninitiated one game of chess is confusing enough, but there's a Minneapolis motion picture operator who whiles away his off-time playing as many as 300 games simultaneously and his current opponents are in every state in the country and the armed forces across both oceans.
He is Charles M. Hardinge, 63, of 32 Spruce Pl., editor of the Minneapolis Chess and Checker Club News.
Hardinge plays from a thick loose-leaf portfolio of board diagrams. At the top of each page is his opponent's name and address and date of his last move.
MOSTLY STRANGERS
Most of his opponents Hardinge never has seen and they came to be his by-mall antagonists through a national organization which promotes the play.
Today's mail, for instance, brought in postcard moves from Kenilworth, Illinois; Aubuin, California; New York City; Gatesville, Texas; Denville, N. J.; Attleboro, Mass. Boston; Washington; Milwaukee; Greeley, Colo. Eugene, Ore.; Saylesville, R. I.; Fort Thompson, S. D. Aiken, S. C.; APO, New York, and APO, San Francisco.
As fast as the moves come in Hardinge turns to his chessboard diagram of previous moves of the opposition, makes the play entry and after calculating his own next move sends it by return mail.
Hardinge has been doing this more than 10 years.
SHORTEST GAME 2 WEEKS
Hardinge's shortest chess game by mail required only seven moves and took two weeks; his longest, with a Swiss before the war, lasted 18 months. The average game takes six months and Hardinge plays many of his opponents over and over again.
Hardinge said constant playing by mail with the same people gives a broad insight into their characters. By the way they move he said you can tell their moods, disappointments, abilities and many other things that wouldn't come to the surface if you knew the fellow personally.
It is easy to detect by an opponent's play if he's frivolous has a sense of humor or if he's a good or bad loser.
OPPONENT NEEDLES HIM
A postcard move postmarked “APO San Francisco” recently advised Hardinge: “You haven't got a Jap's chance.”
Some of Hardinge's opponents gag up their moves with a bit of verse. One correspondent recently conveyed a move by writing the following:
“Where is my wandering queen tonight?
She's gone to see the bishop,
and
I fear she's getting tight.”
Some time ago Hardinge thought he would make jest with a Minneapolis chaplain with whom he carried on a correspondence game at Fort Knox, Ky., and he wrote: “Wil du ha snus?” which Hardinge admits constitutes his total Scandinavian vocabulary. The next reply from the chaplain was written in its entirety in Norse and Hardinge had to get a translator to read it.
