TELEPHONE MATCHES

A form of chess tournaments using a telephone line connection. The first event took place in the USA between players in New York and Hartford in 1878. In the 1880s-90s, there were several tournaments between city chess teams in England. In the twentieth century, a telephone line was used for the competitions between city teams and matches between some chess players, e.g., an encounter between M. Euwe-M. Tal (1960-61), which ended with a draw. In the USSR, the most massive tourney over the telephone was the match on 100 boards between Moscow–Leningrad, won by the Moscow team 53,5-46,5.