Ed wrote on Mon, Mar 19, 2012 02:50 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Dear Mr. Gabor:
Perhaps I am mistaken, but I think that this is a local feature of chess
play that once prevailed in a number of locales in central Europe
eastward.
I seem to recall Murray in his _History of Chess_ proposing such a feature
as evidence of an 'undercurrent' of Mongolization in western chess that
would date from the time of the Golden Horde. He also posited the sway of
chess clubs, I think, as the most effective instrument for these local
customs disappearing, but clearly they endure in Hungary.