Chigorin Played Correspondence Chess

You might expect eBay to have more items on offer during the runup to Christmas, and so it seems to be. In my fortnightly look at Top eBay Chess Items by Price, I saw some ferocious bidding on the same chess sets and other chess items that I've featured in the past, but one unique auction stood out from the rest.

The card pictured on the left was titled 'Russia Correspondence Chess Card M.Chigorin Signed 1901'. Although the starting price was only US $49.99, the card received 22 bids and ultimately sold for $1136. The description said,

The stationery postcard of the 7th Russian correspondence chess tournament. Posted from Gatchina in March 11, 1901 by famous Russian chess master Mikhail Chigorin, addressed to Vladimir Brzheski in St.Petersburg. There is no doubt authentic handwriting and signature of Mikhail Chigorin (1850-1908) leading Russian chess player of those days.

If the game lasted 40 moves, which is average for a game of chess, you can calculate yourself what the entire set of cards would be worth. Perhaps by sheer coincidence, perhaps not, the seller was the same bulkcover who was behind another recent post: There's Gold in Them Thar Score Sheets!. When bulkcover is involved, there's gold in them thar everything related to chess.