Tom Wiswell

[jimloy]

This is my Tom Wiswell article that I composed tor Wikipedia. It is also at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Tom_Wiswell. I don't know how to submit it to Wikipedia. And I don't have a lot of time to work on this and other checkers articles. And I understand that it will eventually disappear from the Wikipedia edit pages. So here is a copy which may or may not last.

Draft:Tom Wiswell
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(Redirected from User:Acf-jimloy/Tom Wiswell)

Thomas G. Wiswell (April 25, 1910 - November 14, 1998[1], usually called Tom, sometimes Tommy), from Brooklyn, New York, was a champion checker player, author, and famous problemist (composer of checkers problems). Wiswell was world champion at go-as-you-please checkers (opening moves can be chosen by the players without restriction) from 1951 until he retired in 1975.[2] His world championship matches were 1951 T. Wiswell - M. Hopper 7-2 (with 27 draws), 1953 T. Wiswell - M. Hopper 2-2 (with 36 draws, Wiswell retaining his title), 1956 T. Wiswell - W. R. Fraser 2-0 (with 37 draws), and 1959-60 T. Wiswell - W. R. Fraser 7-0 (with 27 draws). He was famous for his cross-country exhibition tours that he made annually. He also appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and What's My Line, and other television shows.[3] Wiswell also served in the U. S. Army, and is buried at Calverton National Cemetery.[4]

Wiswell wrote about 20 books on checkers (perhaps selling more books than anyone else) including:[5]

Let's Play Checkers (1940 with Kenneth Grover)
Checker Magic (1943)
Learn Checkers Fast (1946, introduction by Jack Dempsey)
Twentieth Century Checkers (1946 with Kenneth Grover)
World Championship Checkers (1950 with Willie Ryan)
Checker Kings In Action (1952 with Millard Hopper)
Checkers Made Easy (1953)
Championship Chess and Checkers for All (1953 with Larry Evans)
Challenge of Checkers and Chess (1955)
America's Best Checkers (1957 with Dr. Robert L. Shuffett)
International Draughts and Checkers (1959 with Marion Tinsley, W. R. Fraser, and Derek Oldbury)
Checkers in Ten Lessons (1959)
Secrets of Checkerboard Strategy, 1960 (reprinted as The Complete Guide to Checkers, 1970)
Art of Checkers (1964, with W. R. Fraser)
Science of Checkers and Draughts (1977)
The Wonderful World of Checkers and Draughts (1980 with Jules Leopold)

Wiswell was also famous for his checkers proverbs. His most famous proverb is "The move that disturbs your position the least disturbs your opponent the most." Another is, "The master knows exactly the right time to do nothing."[6]
See also

List of draughts players
References

1Tom Wiswell's gravestone.
2American Checker Federation Bulletin, year and month unknown.
3The Encyclopedia of Checkers, by Anthony Bishop, 1975.
4Tom Wiswell's gravestone.
5The data in the list of Wiswell's books was gleaned from lists and title pages within Wiswell's books, and from numerous booksellers.
6 [html://www.dailyspeculations.com/Letter/wiswell.htm] Proverbs of Tom Wiswell.

External links

North Carolina Checker Association, Grandmasters Obituaries

This page was last edited on 21 November 2022, at 17:04 (UTC).

[Richard Pask]

Dear Jim,

The 2nd Fraser match was 7-0 and 17 draws.

You might also want to refer to the 'The Education of a Speculator' book and the lengthy chapter on Tom there.

Two other books were Chess (w/Grover) and Top-Notch Checkers.

Basically, it's 20 at a push - but what great books!