For more than two centuries, the loyal legions of Yale and Harvard have struggled for athletic and social pre-eminence, with occasional digressions into academic debate. Last week the confrontation moved to a new battlefield when two expert chess players began a long-distance match in the name of 'Ivy League glory.

The match, now in its fifth day, has unfolded on an elegant board in the display window of Leavitt and Peirce, a Mass. Ave. tobacco store, without the physical presence of either combatant. Leavitt and Peirce sponsored the event as a publicity stunt and receives a daily move by telephone from Yale freshman Michael J. Wilder and Harvard graduate student Duane Champagne.

Champagne opened with white, promising to follow a secret Russian strategy, but observers said yesterday that it's too early to predict a winner in this thinking-man's version of The Game.

Wilder attained a U.S. Chess Federation ranking of "Master" at age 13, the youngest person to achieve that honor since former world champion Bobby Fisher. Contacted yesterday at his New Jersey home, where he is recovering from a bout of mononucleosis, the cocky youngster said he hasn't than five minutes thinking about any one move so far.

Though he called the match "irrelevant" to the long-term stature of his school, the aspiring psychology major expressed some concern that his opponent would gain a mental edge because of his special game plan. Wilds is ranked 34th in the country in chess but said he has won for more money playing poker.)

Champagne, a grad student in the Sociology Department and a lower-ranking "National Master" said he found has attack strategy in a Russian Magazine, and he emphasized that he and wilder "have a license to be a lot the extravagant--to provide entertainment for people--became the game doesn't count for official ratings"

At least one person--Mar S. Rohenburg '82--hanging on every move Wilder and Champagne make President of the Harvard Radcliffe Chess Club. Rosenburg has maintained a running explanation of the match, which leavett and Peirce displays on its window along with the board itself.

Store manager David A Peper will present the winner of the match with a regulation chess clock but says there are no provisions for a possible draw. He estimated that Wilder and Champagne will finish up sometime in early March.

The match was suggested by mark A. Leeuwenburgh, another Leavett and Peirce employee and himself an expert player