CHESS BY "WIRELESS."

Mataura Ensign, 25 January 1911, Page 2

CHESS BY "WIRELESS."

I'Yesh evidences of the wonders and possibilities of "wireless" are constantly coming to hand. The latest instance will be of particular interest to lovers of chess, wtio have long been able, by reason of the playing of matches by telegraph, to congratulate themselves on the fact that their beloved game is endowed with potentialities which devotees of such popular games as l'ootball t cricket, golf, or bowls cannot hope to claim for their respective pastimes. Wireless telegraphy is now coming to the aid of the enthusiastic chess player. A game of chess by wireless telegraphy was carried on a few weeks ago in the South Atlantic Ocean, between an Austrian nobleman, Count Kolowrat, and a German army officer, Captain von Frankenberg, who was on his way to join the colonial troops in German .South-West Africa. Count Kolowrat, who was on the Austrian ship Franeesca, bound from Trieste to Monte Video, found that there was no one on board with wnom he could play chess, and conceived the idea of finding an opponent on board some other vessel within the range of the ship's wireless apparatus. Ho requested the wireless operator to query any passing ship, and soon got into communication with the German steamship Elenora Woermann, bound from Bremen to Swakopmund. Captain von Frankenberg, on board this vessel, accepted the challenge, and after the preliminaries had been settled the game was storted. To insure accuracy each move was repeated twice. The game began at two o'clock in the afternoon, and was continued till six in the evening, after which there was an interval of two hours, when play was resumed, and continued until the game was decided, shortly before midnight. It was a game of 48 moves, and. Count Kolowrat was the victor. While the game was proceeding the distance between the two steamships varied from 175 to 250 miles.