German War Ciphers

I've been looking into certain chess aspects relative to WWII and in the process came across an interesting article about WWI.  Part of the article contained this chess association:

....This new cipher system worked out by the German Secret Service has developed an elaborate pictorial element.
     A pictorial cipher of this class, sent out of Paris by a dancer in the pay of the German Secret Service, may be cited. It was very skilfully managed. The letter and sketch were enclosed in the embassy mail of a neutral country adjacent to Germany. The actress was one of the most charming personalities in the whole tinsel kingdom of Cockaigne.
     The attache was a susceptible person. It was not difficult for an attractive young woman to gain his attention. He found the actress to have one consuming hobby. She was interested in chess. Chess games and problems held her attention to the exclusion of everything else. Among her first inquiries was whether the attache knew any authority on chess in his own country.
     He did not.
     But he undertook to look the thing up, and he discovered that there was a chess club of some international pretentions. This was all the information the actress required. , She took pains to cultivate him. and attempted to inspire him with the same, interest for chess that she herself professed.
     The attache was not interested in the game, but he presently became tremendously interested in the actress.
     One day she brought him a sketch of a chess problem, asking him to forward it to the club in his city, and requesting them to say what opening had been used, in order to leave the pieces on the board in the position as shown on her sketch. He wrote a letter to the club, enclosing the sketch in the embassy mail.
     The French Government got hold of the letter and her sketch. They brought the thing to the attention of the embassy. The attache made his explanation, which the authorities were inclined to believe.
     They were keeping a tab on the actress of whom they had some suspicion.  They presently discovered that on the day the sketch was made, she had visited in company with one of the fashionable women of Paris, a hospital in which there was a German aviator who had been shot down back of the French lines. Following this clue they finally deciphered the chess-picture. It proved to be a pictorial cipher, showing the position of a large body of French reserves massed behind the lines.

"Verdy interesting! ... "

No, really - good story, batgirl.  Having a lifelong interest in WWII history myself, I believe there've been many other [similar] equally fascinating stories regarding chess during WWII - notably, regarding the [temporary] abolishment of correspondence chess amongst some nations, for the alleged fear of the possibility of its notation [recording] system being used as some form of cipher. (Can't cite precisely which nations were involved, but I believe America then was certainly one of them.)

Thanks again, batgirl.

Good story. Thanks, batgirl:)

There are several stories of chess players detained after chess notation was found on their persons. It's probably not the case of authorities mistaking notation for code, but rather the suspicion that the notation could "be" the code. 

And, of course, many chess players were used as code-breakers, particularly at Bletchley Park.

Here's one:

Excellent article BatGirl, thoroughly enjoyed it!

Thank Melville Davisson Post.  He did all the hard work. I'm just Post's poster.

The incomparable Bill Wall tells us:

In the 19th century chess master Joseph Blackburne was arrested as a French spy for sending chess moves in the mail. The British government thought they were coded secrets.

Some sources say that William Steinitz was arrested in New York or New Jersey after someone in the telegraph company thought that his chess moves being sent over telegraph was code. 

In March 1952, Pal Benko was arrested and imprisoned for 16 months in a Hungarian concentration camp for trying to escape from East Berlin and defect to the West.  He was accused of being an American spy.  When they searched his apartment, they found mail devoted to his postal chess games.  The police assumed that the notation was secret code, and they demanded to know how to break the code.