World Championship Match : Ron King vs. Sergio Scarpetta

[adamjohnson]

Sergio done us proud, next time he willl be champ. Were gonna train with him even harder next time.

[Ingo_Zachos]

The last game of the World Championship Match ended in a draw and was hard fought until the ending.

Final Score:

Ron King (Barbados) 2
Sergio Scarpetta (Itlay) 2

Drawn 20

No winner in the match. It ended tie, but in this case the title holder retains his title by virtue of being undefeated.

Sergio Scarpetta proved that he is as strong as a World Champion, and scored the best result as a Challenger in this century.

Ron King took his chances, and prolonged his reign against a very strong opponent.


Greetimx from cloudy old Germany,

Ingo Zachos

[Chexhero]

A great match indeed. Sergio's online play is very deceiving because he plays at a much much higher level over a real board. While I expected a good competitive match and predicted he would give King some tough games, I did not expect that good of a performance from him, my hat is off to him. Also we need to give a lot of credit to Ron who stayed poised and focused throughout the match and never lost a lead. I would not be surprised if we see the same matchup in the next title match.

[Eric Strange]

Congrats to Sergio on a wonderful performance, and to Ron on retaining his title. It has been demonstrated that King is definitely beatable.

This was a wonderful match. I do not see what Joe is talking about. Sergio played just as strong in the WCM as he plays online. He even played the same lines as he plays online...

This goes to show that the top online players could hang with the top offline players.

[MostFamousDane]

This goes to show that the top online players could hang with the top offline players.

No what it shows is that some of the top offline players also plays online

[tommyc]

And more ... "shadow of title is in the air". It's not score only W_D_L but something more. G. Kasparov wrote about this when he covered his matches with A. Karpov

This shadow has pressure on Sergio.

Alex........


"Shadow of title in the air"...............is just a DREAM.

[Bernard Coll]

Congratulations to Ron on his successful retention of his Freestyle World Title. Also congratulations to Sergio on taking the contest to Ron, and possibly had he been more experienced, he would have indeed won the title. Also thanks to Italian federation on hosting this event and making it possible for checker enthusiasts worldwide to view the proceedings "live". Well done! I may add that Hugh Devlin made some very positive points about freestyle draughts being anything but unexplored. I note that our current 3 move champion scoffed at a fellow poster when it was suggested pre-match match, that innovative players could come up with "new lines of play" in freestyle. He then later admitted that he had never seen the well trodden line on the Defiance which Ron won against Sergio! I recall reading a draughts article years ago about the first World Draughts Champion, the "Herd Laddie" being interviewed about his draughts knowledge. It was suggested to James Wyllie that he must have known every move on the board, to which Wyllie humbly replied, No, I do not believe I know half of it! There is still ample room for humility to return to draughts.
Regards to the draughts playing fraternity, Bernard Coll, secretary of the Scottish Draughts association.

[tommyc]

Bernard................Our big -mouth 3 mv champion thinks he knows it all ...............what else would yu expect from a Donkey only a KICK ????????

[George Hay]

Congratulations to the Champion Ron King and to the undefeated Challenger Sergio Scarpetta!
--George Hay

[Ingo_Zachos]

Congratulations fo Ron King for defending his title.

And congratulations to Sergio Scarpetta. I am sure if he had a jury like in boxing he would have been declared winner on points.

Sergio, it was in your hands and in the end Ron was frightend and carefully managed to escape badly wounded.
Next time just punch hard from the start and you will be a World Champion.

So Alessio Scaggiante is now the only Itlaian World Champion. The future is yours.


Let there be no reason now to discuss online or offline playing, as a true master excels in both.

Also a big compliment to the organizers who gave us an exciting first row view for free. It was an opportunity for the spectators all over the world to meet and get in contact. Thank you very much for that.

The times are over now when only the USA and the UK were represented in the title matches for men.


Actually this time both players represented other countries, and I predict this will happen many times in the future.

Checkers is not dying, but growing in the 21st century, and GAYP is still exciting.

Checkers can be performed on a world-wide stage and that is a true blessing.


Greetinx from cloudy Dortmund to the rest of the world,

Ingo Zachos

[sergio]

Hello everyone,
I hope you enjoyed my games. I know I played unfamiliar variations for most of you. I've thought my games this morning, and if you ask me why I played so, I should say that I don't know. My strategy was to play safely and with rationality. While I was playing my games I realised that Mr. King didn't want to complicate games, so I had to take my risks and try new moves and old lines considered very weak in Duffy's Single Corner and Master Play. We played very strange Alma's variations, and other few interesting lines , perhaps never published before. Who was present knows how tired we were at the end of every single play day. In a match like that the stress plays an important role, especially after you were under pressure in a long game. So it's possible to make silly mistakes, to forget lines, to be afraid of your opponent, and to change your strategy. There is a good thing that I want to remark here, although we were opponents on the board, at lunch and dinner we ate, chatted and joked together at the same table. The play is important, but other things are more important, especially the friendship. It was a great experience for me, I hope the next King's opponent will be able to excite all of us.
Thank you all!

Best regards
Sergio Scarpetta

[Palomino]

Sergio,

Congratulations on a job well done! Ron is King of GAYP and you went head to head with him and made an outstanding World Championship Match out of it.

The American checker community has been searching for new enthusiasts to take up our game for a long time and the numbers continue to dwindle. It seems that the growth in the game's popularity may well come from Italy.

Many thanks for your comments here on the forum..."Pal" Bucker

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Being out of comp for couple days. Congratulations to Mr. King defending his title. Mr. Scarpetta definetely learned something from this match and should do it better next time when opportunity arise.

Nice match and fight.

Good luck to everyone in Lille !

Respectfully,

Alex Moiseyev

[Danny_Alvarez]

......

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Just finished checking all my emails over the weekend. Many thanks to Ingo Zachos who sent me full text of G19. Originally I wanted to annotate this game but after looking at text, I let someone else to do this. Well ... sh** happened !

Humoristical Russian quote says "Lucky (Ron) as winner !"

After joining with Mr. Borghetti with tons of blunders in our 2011 3-moves match, I am not in position to criticize anyone.

Dear Sergio, can you imagine now this marathon for 40 games, not 24 ?

Regards,

Alex