2004A Little Hungarian Chess History - Sheetlets

The Hungarian Post Office Ltd. presents the history of Hungarian chess by issuing a special sheet of stamps which is unique in the world. The history of Hungarian chess has been put on the 64 stamp designs by micro writing as an underprint. The sheet of stamps consists of stamps with a 1,600-character study on the history of chess on each, which, read in the right order (from square a8 horizontally to square h1), review the material remains, important personalities and events of Hungarian chess spanning one thousand years from the earliest written records and archaeological finds to the present day. The stamp design depicts a chess board showing the starting move of the so-called “Hungarian Defence”. The name derives from the correspondence chess match between the Hungarian and French capitals between 1842-1845, which ended in a Hungarian victory in both matches. In order to easily identify the squares, the edges contain numerals on the right and left hand sides and let-ters on the top and bottom. The lower edge has an inscription meaning “A Little Hungarian Chess History”.