AJanuary 02 1937
Edmonton Journal, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Saturday, January 02, 1937
Man Plays Chess By Remote Control 02 Jan 1937, Sat Edmonton Journal (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) Newspapers.com
Man Plays Chess By Remote Control
VANCOUVER, Jan. 2. —Frank Fillery, who plays chess with opponents as far as 6,500 miles away, sat down today and figured out the next moves in the 33 games he is now playing simultaneously with others in widely-scattered parts of the globe.
It takes a lot of patience and a thorough knowledge of the game to play chess by remote control as does Fillery, secretary of the Vancouver Chess club and Canadian secretary of the League of Pawns of England.
At present, Frank is playing with opponent in Jonsered, Sweden, another in Wales and several in the United States and England.
“I had a game once with a convict in San Quentin penitentiary, California, who had plenty of time to figure out the moves,” Fillery said. The match went on for 18 months and the convict won.
In correspondence chess one player writes his move in a letter to his opponent, keeping a record of it in a file. The opponent writes back his move and so on.
Fillery has some trouble with his Swedish opponent, who writes his moves in Swedish, but a chess book giving the foreign equivalents for names of English chessmen helps.
Fillery, who has won nine gold, silver and bronze medals, is one of many who keep correspondence games going all the time. Two of the present matches are being played as part of the “America versus Great Britain 1,000-board match.”
