[phonebucket]

This occurred in a game of mine.

I play(ed) international correspondence chess. The games can go on for years. In one of my games, my opponent sadly passed away. The game was adjuticated to a draw nine months after we had started.

I did not have much personal connection with my opponent or interaction beyond our moves and an initial greeting, but it was obviously an extremely sad way for the game to end.

Edit: the termination string in my game was actually that of a draw by adjudication, but I do want to make it clear that a death during a chess game is not as uncommon as one might expect.

[Aulig]

Im not familiar with chess - why do some games last that long? Or was it multiple games?

[phonebucket]

It’s one game that lasts so long.

This was traditionally played by players exchanging moves via letters sent by post.

Naturally people use the internet more these days, but with a lot of time allowed between moves to keep the slow pace of correspondence chess.

Allowing this amount of time between moves completely changes the character of the game. There’s ample time of deep analysis and research. There’s more incentive to leave the beaten track if you need to push for a win.

It’s an extremely different game to over-the-board chess.

[kgwgk]

> Allowing this amount of time between moves completely changes the character of the game. There’s ample time of deep analysis and research.

It can also end in chaos: https://maxxwolf.tripod.com/woody.html

[Aulig]

Oh interesting, thanks for the explanation!

[noshaker]

There are other games which can lost pretty long. Online strategy multiplayer games like Dominions 5 or other PBEM games (play by email) can last for months as each turns is allowed a day and there are 60-80 turns in an average game.