The American Checker Federation

At the 26th American Championship, Medora ND, It was my privelege to play Walter Hellman and to meet and analyse with Roy Hunt of Cicero, Illinois. It came about this way. That morning Walter and I had a very unusul game which, to the surprise of no one, was one by Hellman.. The next game was a draw...

There is an app called Checker Cruncher that fits that description. It can be downloaded by going on google and typing in 'checker cruncher.' For information you can go to brooks@checker cruncher.com. There are over 15,000 animated problems with vived diagrams as well as animated historic games.

In International Draughts and Checkers, the book of the Tinsley-Oldbury Match and the first Wiswell-Fraser Match, page 24, we find this: Prof. Fraser wrote, I recalled clearly his (Marion Tinsley's) answer to a checkerist at the Canadian National Exhibition, a checkeriast who inquired: 'Mr. Tinsley,...

Congratulations on a fine win. Keep the problems coming!

Based on going over more than one thousand championship match games, I can say with confidence that this is just the sort of win that is missed in high level play. It is not easy to see everything that far ahead.

Ed

Bob, That certainly is a fine edition of The Checker Maven. It would be worthwhile for future historians of the game to review it. Almost as interesting as the text, are the photos of leading players who are mentioned. The image of Elbert Lowder is almost presidential.. it brought back old memories ...

Hi George, Thank you for posting the beautiful diagrams and for the kind words. Readers should note that the diagrams refer to the last two positions sent. Treatment of another theme is anticipated when I can think up a suitable name for it.

On Dec. 7, 2019 Bob Newell's The Checker Maven celebrated its fifteenth anniversary with a fine problem by long time contributer, Bria Hinkle, which employed what I call the Jack in the box theme. Here is how this theme came about. Some years ago Bill Salot and I were discussing checker terms when I...

Another source is The American Draughts Player which lists every book in print up until about 1878, icluding foreign books such as Lanci's work in Italian. Lanci was the first to publish the fortress position (see Boland's Masterpieces for examples). As far as I know I am not related to Matthew Atki...

Another chess player, who is not so well known, who wrote a checker manuel is David Andrew Mitchell. His book, Checkers, was reprinted in 2011 and is probably still in print. Two checker players who wrote a book on chess are Kenneth Grover and Tom Wiswell. I have fond memories of conversations with ...

In 1952, when I was a lad of 14, the Philadelphia PA experts were playing 11 man ballot with the pieces squares 4 and 29 removed. They would write the names of these squares on the cards that were in use at that time. They felt that it was less weakening to have these pieces removed than to remove p...

It seems that there are any of four former champions that he could have played. James Wylie died in 1899, so it seems unlikely that it was him. Robert Martins died in 1904, so he would have been in advanced years at the time. More likely seems James Ferrie or Richard Jordan. Ferrie defeated Wylie in...

Thank you, George Hay. Nowadays I don't think too much about getting votes. The idea is to provide worthwhile problems for these fine contests. All the problems were very good.

Emd Atkinson

American Champion, Frank Marshall made a similar suggestion many years ago. I believe that it was in his 1932 book, Comparitive Chess. At the time Capablanca suggested adding pieces and enlarging the board. Marshall expressed a preference for balloting the first move on each side as was the practice...

Thank you for mentioning the Guest Students' Page. This months page features practical problems that may be of special interest to less advanced players. There is also 'Roy's Country Store', with fine problems by Roy Lityle. Bill Salot's contest for this issue of the ACF Bulletin has some real firew...

In Peter Ackroyd's biography, 'Newton', we read " When he (Isaac Newton- ECA) was young & first at university he played at drafts (draughts- ECA) & if anyone gave him first move was sure to beat them." Catherine Barton Conduitt Isaac Newton's niece Did the great mathematical and sc...