Lost technology – How to play Interstate matches? – – – An impossible dream?!
Computers can now work out all chess positions perfectly with 7 pieces or less on the board.
8 pieces perfectly is still not possible due to the limitations of computing power and AI – or A One as the Americans call it!
Such limitations also apply to Australian chess players with their inability to replicate something that was happening in 1868.
I guess we just have to wait for computing power to catch up.
Key Details of Early Australian Interstate Chess.
The 1868 Pioneer Match:
Managed largely by the Melbourne Chess Club, the historic match pitting Melbourne against Adelaide used the emerging technology of the electric telegraph to transmit moves across colonies. The games were later published in a rare 16-page pamphlet titled [The Games of the Intercolonial Chess Match: Melbourne versus Adelaide].
Subsequent 1870 Match: Following the 1868 fixture, the second major intercolonial telegraphic contest took place on November 9, 1870, between Victoria and New South Wales.The Medium: Before physical travel teams and regular face-to-face national congresses became common, the telegraph office served as the primary venue for inter-colony competition, effectively turning telegraph lines into Australia’s first digital chess boards.
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