@ehowton - 

There once was a wise old man who told me about how in the days of yore, people would play chess by mail. They would receive their opponent’s letter which indicated their opponent’s move. Once received, they would lay the letter aside until such a time that was convenient for further study, such as at night after said recipient had worked in the field all day. For many hours the letter would be examined, thought about, debated and scenarios calculated. Once the recipient had calculated their move (this process could take days, weeks or even in some rare cases months) they would then find a convenient time to draft a letter back to their opponent explaining the move they had decided on.

At this point, the completed letter would be set aside until such time as was convenient and then the letter would be transported to the General Store in the nearest town. In most cases, it was a full day’s hard ride into town, but before the journey could begin, the horse(s) would have to be caught and hitched to the wagon. Furthermore, lists of activities and groceries would have to be prepared before said journey could begin. This planning stage could take days and in a few cases, weeks.

Finally, the day in question would arrive, and off to the Big City the family would go, letter in pocket. (The process would be longer if the letter was forgotten and left at home, but we will exclude that possibility for brevity’s sake). The letter would be taken to the post office, postage paid and on be sent on its way. Of course, the letter would have to be sorted with other letters and then be sent to the appropriate stops until it reached the recipient.

Reaching the recipient was not guaranteed. Wars, pandemics, weather conditions, the health of the mail carrier(s) and bandits all had to be calculated into the mix before a precise and accurate ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival for those of you in Texas) could be determined.

IF the letter had gone the entire route and was readable to the opponent, the afore-mentioned process would begin again and would continue until the chess game ended.

Of course, I also know someone who wrote the first stanza to one of his poems but did not complete the poem until some twenty years later.

@ehowton - 

You are getting to be an old bastard, aren’t you?