Final Results of 2007 GAYP Nationals

kim willis · Post by **kim willis** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:38 pm

I would like to tell everyone that this was a great toiurnament.here is the final results.

Masters

Kondlo 1st
Webster 2nd
McCosker 3rd
Lindsay 4th
Beckwith 5th
Morrison 6th
Nash 7th
Schwartz 8th
Hallett 9th
Francis 10th
King 11 th.
Bryan 12 th.
Holmes 13 th.
Bishop 14th.
Millhone 15 th.
Weaver 16 th.
Rayevsky 17th.

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Majors

Burks 1st
O'grady 2pts
Murr 3pts
Lyons 4/5
Shultz 4/5
Canning 6/7
Darrow 6/7
Holder 8/9
Meacham 8/9
Runge 10th

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Minors

Strange 1st
Cineros 2nd
Larocca 3rd
Pradenas 4th
Wolverton 5th
Weaver 6th
Blackshear 7th
Fenster 8/9
Stein 8/9
Willis 10 th.

Wilma Wolverton won the US National Womans title congrats to her.

At the end of the tournament we took group pictures and many others.
This turned out to be a very wonderful tournament had great friends here and made many new ones.

kim

Jay H · Post by **Jay H** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:58 pm

CONGRATS TO ALL !!!!!

Regards
Jay H

Alex_Moiseyev · Post by **Alex_Moiseyev** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:34 pm

Huh ... this is my 1001 post in this forum !

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What a wonderful mess !!!

Conratulations to all winners and new USA Nat'l Champ from South Africa. I like that outcome very much

It seems like when suki came close to the leading group, he've got a "drawn block" from his opponents or ... maybe he lost to someone ?

I also want to congratulate Wilma Wolverton - our new Woman National Champion !

As I preliminary promised to ACF - I will select and annotate games from this ty ... alone or as member of team.

I am thinking about a book "GAYP in 2007" which will include all available games from all 3 Divisions & Youth in USA National and all 3 ty's in QT in September ... and maybe some other National's (GAYP) from Europe

if they send me a games.

Respectfully,

Alex Moiseyev

Hugh Devlin · Post by **Hugh Devlin** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:13 am

Congratulations to all prize winners. It would be great to see the final points tally here.

Seeing Lubabalo Kondlo win here is not a total surprise. I am on record as saying that there are a number of players in SA who are capable of winning this event. The following extracts from an article I wrote in the NorthWest Draughts Federation Newsletter (2002) may be of some interest here. This was a story about my "draughts tour" of SA that year .....

"On Tuesday we visited the Soweto Township to meet with Lubabalo Kondlo, the current South African draughts champion. Lubabalo is 29 years old and has been living in Soweto for the past 2 years where he plays with the “Tsakane Draughts Club”. He is originally from Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Province, and holds the South African draughts championship title at both GAYP and 3-Move styles of play. I was to learn that Soweto has four draughts clubs, namely the “Tsakane Draughts Club”, the “Khatlehong Draughts Club”, the “Dobsonville Draughts Club” and the “Sebekeng Draughts Club”. Lubabalo joined us for an interview with the “Sowetan” newspaper, which has South Africa’s largest daily circulation of approximately 2.1 million copies.

Wednesday morning involved an appearance on a breakfast television show, known as the “Toasty Show”, which is broadcast live to an average 4.5 million viewers each morning. The interview with Lubabalo and myself lasted approximately seven minutes, and involved playing a quick game of draughts on camera. It was light-hearted and fun, and those who were present felt that it came across well. Lubabalo then informed me that I was the first “white” person he had ever played against! After the show we set out on a tour of some farm schools that make up the Bathja Youth Development Programme, including the Blair Atholl School, St. Angier’s School, and the Kwena Malopo secondary school outside Lanseria. These schools have the game of draughts being promoted as part of their personal development / recreational cirriculum……

The township of “Kwazakhele”, just outside Port Elizabeth, would be the scene of the second test match against South Africa’s number two player, Feni Mododa, and this area has been described as the “hot-bed” of draughts in South Africa…. It would appear there is seven draughts clubs in this one township, and they all wanted to play against me. Their clubs are named the “Vukani Draughts Club”, “Umanyrno Draughts Club”, “Vulindlela Draughts Club”, “Fight For Ever Draughts Club”, “Killers Draughts Club”, “All -Stars Draughts Club”, and the “Vultures Draughts Club”.

….. Lubabalo was brought up here, and he related that it’s almost impossible to get a win against any of these players at GAYP! He also said that many of these players had contested six game “friendly” matches against Ron King when he was here in 1999, and many of them held him even over the six games, with a few scoring wins against him. "

Shane, congratulations from all in the NorthWest Draughts Federation(NWDF). You have done us proud!

Ingo_Zachos · Post by **Ingo_Zachos** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 4:39 am

Congratulations to the winners!

This surprise is no bad achievement.
Winning the US nationals in the first attempt.
Looks like the Checker/Draughts World has found a new possible contender for the World Championship.
Ron King had a handicap, and it would be interesting to know how they played against each other.
I hope that this win will not be the end of Mr. Kondlo's international carreer.
Maybe he can play the WCDF Qualifier, too ?
And maybe we have to draw the map of our game new.
Also Cgrts. to Wilma Wolverton, who shows better shape as its getting closer to the WCDF Qualifier.
Will the games be published ?

Greetinx from sunny and rainy Dortmund, Germany

Ingo Zachos

john reade · Post by **john reade** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:51 am

We published the following letter from Lubabalo Kondlo to Dennis Pawlek in the Lancashire Checkers Newsletter in December 2004.

Dear Mr Pawlek,

My name is Lubabalo Kondlo from South Africa. I am rated No. 1 draughts player here in South Africa. I am writing to ask if you would give me a chance to visit your country. I have no sponsor. I can only come if you invite me to visit you.

My record speaks for itself. I won against Ronald Suki King in 1999 here in S.A. I won against Hugh Devlin in 2001 here in S.A. I won against Chinook in 2003 in the Masters Division. I can play draughts blindfolded. I am a 32 years old African young man. Anyway, I would like to visit your country. I hope to hear from you soon. My address is 6372 Nicholas Street, Orlando East, 1804 Soweto, South Africa. My email address is nicholas2003@webmail.co.za

Lubabalo Kondlo.

It's good to see that he has made the big time.

I wonder how he'd get on against Alex?

rich beckwith · Post by **rich beckwith** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 1:05 pm

Just returned this morning. Here are a few notes.

There was a 5-way tie for first going into final round (Webster, McCosker, Kondlo, Lindsay, and myself). Kondlo won by 2 honor points over Dr. Webster, who lead most of tournament. King and Kondlo played two "quiet" draws head-to-head (Old 14th, I think). Kondlo lost one game in tournament, but did not lose a round. King ran into too many drawn rounds late in tournament (Kondlo, Morrison, Nash). Paul Bryan (last in youth tournament) won rounds from Francis and Linsday on Day 1, and also won games from Hallett (I think) and Holmes (and had Kondlo in ending loss, but drew). This shows how good the youth tournament was this year. McCosker was around 3rd place throughout tournament.

We had news coverage during week and had spot on local newscast.
Prize fund was around $11,500. Here are point totals....

Masters

Kondlo 1st -- 31-346
Webster 2nd -- 31-344
McCosker 3rd -- 30-347
Lindsay 4th -- 30-330
Beckwith 5th -- 29
Morrison 6th -- 28-349
Nash 7th -- 28-330
Schwartz 8th -- 28-323
Hallett 9th -- 28-319
Francis 10th -- 28-315
King 11 th. -- 28-190 (!)
Bryan 12 th. -- 27
Holmes 13 th. -- 26
Bishop 14th. -- 25
Millhone 15 th. -- 20
Weaver 16 th. -- 15
Rayevsky 17th. --9

kiwinurse · Post by **kiwinurse** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 4:42 pm

Warmest congratulations to Wilma on a well deserved title.Also to young Shane for his wonderful performance.

BillyBoy · Post by **BillyBoy** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:47 pm

In the majors 3 people was cut off the list Gibson, Mclard, Furguson.

jimloy · Post by **jimloy** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 6:11 pm

There are three people missing from the Minors, as well.

Mr. Checkers · Post by **Mr. Checkers** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 6:36 pm

What was the ratings cutoff for each of the divisions--Masters, Majors, and Minors? "Mr. Checkers"

Bob Murr · Post by **Bob Murr** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:54 am

More details on the final results can be seen on JR Smith's NC Checkers website.

http://www.nccheckers.org/NCCA/2007%20Y ... ionals.htm

BillyBoy · Post by **BillyBoy** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 12:39 pm

Hi Bob, Yes the Ncc site does have it going on it has the points beside the players along with pictures. And I noticed some of the placements are diffrent then how Kim posted them. Nothing against her she obviously did alot just saying thats a good site for results. Billy

Alex_Moiseyev · Post by **Alex_Moiseyev** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 1:33 pm

Bob Murr wrote:More details on the final results can be seen on JR Smith's NC Checkers website.

http://www.nccheckers.org/NCCA/2007%20Y ... ionals.htm

Bob, I posted your link on Russian checkers site forum, where visitors are interested pay a big attention to Anglo-American form of game.

I continue to keep them updated with news and information ... who knows, maybe some day we have good money involve and they come here to cautch them all

Thanks everyone who maintains NC site and update it nicely and timely !

Alex

bazkitcase5 · Post by **bazkitcase5** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 2:56 pm

Some personal thoughts of mine on the tournament:

- Alan let me get away with a mistake in the first game of our round, but the bad karma was just too much in the 2nd game when I returned the favor and went from missing a win to a loss in 1 quick, min./move blunder - talk about a large point swing

- My final record was 4-2-20 with 4 missed wins, but 2 of the missed wins were the games that I lost! The blunder against Alan was terrible, but in my loss against King, I was staring at the board thinking "how am I going to draw this", but the position was so complicated that the program said I had a win on the board in that situation where I was looking for the draw!

- In round 9, John Webster was leading the tournament by himself, so I was able to play the role of spoiler (sorry John!) - I won the first game and the 2nd game was another of my missed wins, yet another ending blunder - another one of those games where u play so well so long, but not long enough!

- Kondlo was very impressive and quickly earned the respect of everybody there, but he did lose 1 game and was in a loss in 3 others (that I know of). 2 times he was playing out the losing side of 4 on 3 kings and he drew one and won the other! Talk about an important 3 point swing, considering he was 3 or less points ahead of half the field

- more impressive to me was Shane McCosker, who I believe along with King, were the only 2 people to go undefeated. although he was in 1 loss that I know of, which was my 4th missed win... - I believe he also went undefeated in his winning of the youth tournament

- I was disappointed at first that I had to be the only person to play King twice, but the 2nd time around I was able to hold him to 2 draws - worse yet, I didn't even get the great honor points one would normally get from playing a top player twice in a tournament

- I am glad they came to play, but the weaker players were likely the cause of the major bottle neck towards the top of the masters division. Every time a player would lose a game or 2, they would either get the bye, or one of the 2 weaker players to shoot right back to the top. With it being so difficult to get wins in GAYP against the top players, the bottle neck never ceased - after all, 11th place out of 17 was only 3 points behind the leader

- all in all it was a very fun tournament with lots of interesting games - I truly believe this same tournament played again could have very different results (assuming King is late again haha) - but thats what happens when you have Alex and King at the top and everybody else fighting it out below them

The American Checker Federation