Typical disrespect of checkers in Queen's Gambit

[chipschap]

Did any of you here watch the popular Netflix series "Queen's Gambit" and catch the slam of checkers?

Beth Harmon, after her big win, is riding through Moscow with the US State Department representative, who tells her she has a White House appearance scheduled and will play a game of chess with the President. He says of course she'll beat him because "Texas is more of a checkers kind of place."

This, to the best of my recollection, didn't appear in the original novel.

I liked the series a lot but unfortunately this perpetuates and promotes a denigrating view of checkers on a massive scale.

[George Hay]

Hi Bob,

Or you could consider it a shout out to our Texas Checkers friends.

....Also early on in The Queen's Gambit someone asked "did you know chess is older than checkers?"
I'm paraphrasing, but at least checkers was mentioned in that arguable question.

....Also now on Netflix is Searching For Bobby Fischer. Chinese Checkers is mentioned, but as we know that game is neither Chinese nor Checkers.
Also, for the final tournament in the film they pull up to the hotel in a Checker Cab.
(Hmmm...the Russian Grandmaster who beat Tal in 1953 reminds me of...Mr. Alex!)

About that new U.S. Grant Biography, Grant by Ron Chernow, I looked for a reference to checkers in the index, including West Point, but I could not find one. If I found it, I would have bought the book and sooner or later would have read it. Checkers was played by General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union (North), while Chess was played by General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate (South). That is Checkers vs Chess history. Sometimes the disrespect is not to mention checkers at all!

your checkers friend, George Hay

[Richard Pask]

Unfortunately you don't have to look far to find countless examples of ill-informed statements like this. Some are made out of simple ignorance of the true nature of checkers, while others go further in deliberately criticising the game. For myself, I fail to understand why someone would wish to criticise another game rather than simply extolling the virtues of one's own favourite.

Learn Chess Fast (Reshevsky and Reinfeld): 'The variety of moves in chess is the basis for all the artistry and beauty which this wonderful game possesses. In comparison, a game such as checkers, in which all the pieces have the same powers, soon becomes flat, uninspired, repetitious, lacking in surprise elements and failing to give scope to the players' ingenuity.'

Yes, it really says that.

Secrets of the Russian chess Masters (Alburt and Parr) [A very highly regarded book]

Having described the ultimate aim of chess - checkmate: 'In many of the lesser board games, players mindlessly attempt to capture the opponent's pieces or men, and the side that establishes an advantage in brute force wins the game.'

Yes, it really says that.

[chipschap]

"Learn Chess Fast (Reshevsky and Reinfeld): 'The variety of moves in chess is the basis for all the artistry and beauty which this wonderful game
possesses. In comparison, a game such as checkers, in which all the pieces have the same powers, soon becomes flat, uninspired, repetitious, lacking in surprise elements and failing to give scope to the players' ingenuity.'"

All the more surprising as Reinfeld also wrote and published about checkers.

But by the standard espoused in the quote, the game of Go would be extremely uninspired ... the pieces are always all the same and don't even move!

[liam stephens]

In contrast here are some pithy quotes about the game.

Draughts - Pithy Quotes

Chess, as a showy game may claim the sway.
But Draughts, for depth, will bear the palm away;
Chess can be played by Philidors, though blind;
Our game requires both sight and thoughtful mind.

-Drummond : his 2nd Edition, 1851.


“It was Pillsbury’s practice in blindfold games to play by the numbers. For example, instead of saying ‘If I go here, he will go there; then I go here, he goes there’ and so on, he thought of the numbers of the squares. … Mentally articulating the numbers aids the visualising faculty.”

- Call - Vocabulary of Checkers, 1909.


“If he goes there, I go here; then he goes there and I go here ; but then he goes there, and I go mad”

- Anon.


A man must serve his time to every trade
Save censure – critics all are ready-made.

- Byron.


“It should hardly be thought necessary to remind players, who are conscious themselves of not rising above mediocrity, that in many games there may be moves, the scope and tendency of which they do not understand, and the merits of which they cannot appreciate at first sight.”

- Anderson : in his 2nd Edition, 1852.


“The end of the Age of Giants – professionals stalking the land, closely guarded by their patrons and backers, looking for prey – coincided with two trends, which appeared on the scene virtually simultaneously and were to become almost inextricably intertwined. I mean the rise of Amateurism and the forming of National Organisations for the promoting of the game.”

Oldbury : in his Encyclopaedia of Draughts, 1978.


See also Oldbury’s Chequer Chiaroscuro, 1966.

[Richard Pask]

For a brilliant article by Jan Jaap on the subject of complexity/difficulty, google 'Complexity of checkers and draughts on board sizes 6x6/8x8/10x10/12x12/14x14'.

For example, the author concludes that 12 x12 draughts is far more complex than chess, and 14 x 14 draughts (42 pieces a side!) is far more complex than go. However, he is quick to point out that this doesn't make them more difficult in a sense which is meaningful for a human being.

Apparently the 14 x 14 version , known as 'daam' is quite popular in South Africa.

[Edgar C. Atkinson]

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, do you really think that checkers is as hard as chess?'
Marion's comment:
'I doubt that anybody works at anything harder than I work on checkers,'

Possibly it is appropriate for Marion Tinsley to have the last word.

[liam stephens]

Thank you to Ed Atkinson for showing the quotation by Dr. Tinsley – touché.
And thank you Richard Pask for the link to the article by Jan Jaap, a very interesting piece.

One of his conclusions, that caught my eye, states that:

”Especially 14x14 draughts will be a tough game for computers. Methods that are known to be highly successful for 8x8 checkers and 10x10 draughts will start to break down. There is virtually no use for an opening book and endgame databases, search depth will be strategically insignificant (compared to game length), and evaluation becomes increasingly difficult (to learn)…
And we don't have to get bored in the years to come.”

Does not this suggest the intriguing possibility that the 3 move restriction convention in checkers (the allocation of Openings to applicants by drawing lots) might at some stage in the future become superseded, with Balloting out ? Perhaps, as stated by Henry Fonda in an old movie from years ago - “It might just be possible”.
In Chess, for example, one is not asked to play Pawn to Rook 4, just because it doesn’t lose.

Is there any openings restriction rule in 10x10 draughts? I don’t think so ,but there seems to be an arcane rule in some 10x10 tournaments whereby in an ending where a lone king can draw against 3 kings, or similar positions, the score awarded to one of the players is adjusted in favour of the player with the higher king count than from what applies for a normal draw ? Perhaps a reader familiar with the rules of 10x10 draughts could enlighten us?
To my way of thinking the side with the lesser number of kings in a drawn position, should be the more deserving of a bonus point, if any.

[Richard Pask]

Professor Fraser's inside story of the Tinsley-Oldbury match is ID&C is surely one of the highlights of our literature.

I have always found one particular part spectacularly amusing, but perhaps it's just my sense of humour.

'Surely Marion had said, whether in Toronto or Montreal, that he had spent perhaps a thousand hours [!] on a specific mid-game of the 9-14 23-18; 14-23 opening. (1) A word to the wise, but eventually Derek informed me that he always avoided the landing.' (2) [!]

Knowing DEO fairly well, I can just see and hear him saying this with a crafty smile on his face!

1) 9-14 23-18; 14-23 27-18; 12-16 18-14; 10-17 21-14; 6-9 14-10 ...
2) 9-14 23-18; 14-23 27-18; 12-16 18-14; 10-17 21-14; 6-9 32-27 ...

[ZoeZap]

There was a line in the new Disney+ show "Loki", where a character says "One guy playing checkers, you, old Mobius playing chess..."