The Last Post

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, October 31, 2021

Over the last few years I have dabbled with Postal Chess, but recently I completed by final Postal Games. There are several reasons for this, but the main ones are:

• The event organizer making the strategically limited decision to move the Events to ICCF unrated.
• The cost. Let's take a loot at this – assuming each pair of games goes on for 40 moves (Postal games are shorter than Server games, and I believe mainly for the reason of Postage Cost). So that is 40 stamps to buy for the two games. Let’s now assume I make some condition moves, reducing this to 30 stamps – This gives us a total cost of £19.80 per a pair of games, so rounding £10 per game. If we then take an event with 5 players, we have a cost per event of around £80 for the event in postage (and that is using 2nd class stamps). If we add in a cost of entry, we now are talking a total approaching £100 per event. What this would give us in server terms – The entry fee to 8-10 international events, with high-level opposition and norms likely.
• The diminishing pool of interesting/competitive opposition. The pool of players in postal CC is tiny and shrinking all the time. This means playing the same few players over and over. As one of the most prolific CC players around (not in ICCF terms but in other organizations) original opponents are what makes the game interesting (alongside some old regulars with whom interesting conversations are possible!)
• Changes in the postal service. Deliveries are now throughout the day, with deliverable PM deliveries being trialled, This creates an unfair advantage for some players.

That is why, for me, it’s the last post.