Online checkers library.

[tgf]

Hi William!

I recently removed all index.htm files, best idea is to always use http://checkersusa.com/books/ address and then go from there.
The main page has advantages - you can monitor new arrivals and be informed of the changes.
One of the changes was registration, this was done to guard against attacks.

Jake

[williamdocherty]

Ok, I got it!!

Thanks

[tgf]

Food for thought

[tgf]

Someone sent me Sturges book from 1800, the title is messed up, all I see is "Game of Draughts" and under it - 500 select games, but it will take some time to clean pages to make them look half descent

[tgf]

He also sent what looks like the original Payne's book, said the gift from W.T. Call, I was after it for a long time!

[tgf]

Well, it is after 11:00 PM and I finally completed what turned out the original Joshua Sturges "The Guide to the Game of Draughts" as of 1800, the library contains several reprints of the book by other people. This book is about 70 pages - but guess what? My mysterious contributor just sent me yet another unknown (or better say - extremely rare) Sturges book - 200 some pages of Critical Positions as of 1808 ! With the original Payne's book this trio is going to be the most significant addition to the history of the game! I do wish the contributor took a bow, he deserves the applause of the draughts community.

[tgf]

Sturges' Critical Situations as of 1808 is now in. Obviously not an original scan, every diagram is skewed in multiple directions, and possibly from more than one set of scans because of the mix of black and color pages.

[tgf]

The set is now complete, William Payne, An Introduction to the Game of Draughts, 1756, the first book on English Draughts in english.

[tgf]

Sad to see such disinterest

[George Hay]

That is a very good clean and readable copy of An Introduction To The Game Of Draughts by William Payne in 1756.
It was W.T. Call who presented (donated) this copy to the Brooklyn Public Library. No doubt Payne and Call would be pleased
to see this first book in English on Anglo-American Checkers in the Online Checkers Library.
--George Hay

[tgf]

I normally clean up all pages to make reading experience more enjoyable

[liam stephens]

Nice to see these books online.
I viewed all 3 of them in the reading room of the British Museum in London many years ago.
The copy of Payne's book online is the B version of Payne’s book, but note that the title page highlighted on the web page is from the A version. The differences between the A and B versions are outlined and discussed in an article by Abel Parlow In the British Draughts Journal.
See Exhibit 001 under ARTIFACTS in the Online Museum of Checkers. http://www.online-museum-of-checkers-history.com/
For example the A version has “Teacher of the Mathematics” in the title page whereas the B version has “Teacher of Mathematics”. There are several other differences as listed by Parlow.
Both versions are dated 1756 and for many years there were conflicting claims as to which version is the original one.
Research by Ken Lovell has established that the B version is the original one.
See Exhibit 157 under BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS in the Online Museum of Checkers.
As you say George, this copy was donated by Call to the Brooklyn Library, but following on from the title page you will see a page stamped “KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK” . This is the National Library of the Netherlands who, presumably, acquired the book, or a facsimile of it, at a later date.
I see that the Dewey Decimal Classification 794 has also been inscribed on the page. The Sturges 1800 and 1808 books also contain the KB stamp or logo.
I hope this information is of interest.

[tgf]

Thanks Liam for the historical lesson, really fascinating!

On the title - I had the title page posted on its own, without a book for a long time. Someone also donated the games from the book in the PDN which I animated with Aurora - all this but no book itself.
The book just received has a different title page, much less legible than the prior one. I of course noticed numerous differences, from added words, to font type and letter case but I thought this just adds historical value pointing to multiple prints.

OMOCH's artifacts are truly wonderful in solving historical disputes; I myself am more concerned with the visual experience, often removing blank pages and extremely faint hand comments, not to mention massive cleanup of lines and speckles.

One more distinction made by the contributor - Payne's book was the first in English language. The OCL library contains many Spanish books and one French book dated before 1756 and quite possible they describe the "English Draughts" one way or another.

[tgf]

I have a request - can someone record all positions and solutions from Sturges' Critical Situations to PDN and let me convert them to Aurora, this way one can read the book and observe the solution at the same time on two screens.

[tgf]

Actually I recall receiving two title pages, the other was perhaps A cover but had ugly rules across the page.
When I get home I will try to find and post it.