Online checkers library.

[liam stephens]

The Irish Draughts Association Newsletter from 2006 to 2012 Vol 1 - 6 is now available on the Library site.
Thanks to Jake Kacher who went to a lot of effort getting it all posted online.
The Draughts/Checkers Library is a great service to the game and free to all.
Thank you Jake - Liam Stephens.

See - Straight Checkers - http://checkersusa.com/books/straight/index.htm

[tgf]

Thanks Liam, I was happy to assist you in placing IDA Journal online, I know how much effort it was to find various pages in different formats on different computers.
Now they are all together and in one place available to all for years to come. To you as the Editor of the IDA Journal - good job!!!

[tgf]

On a different subject - using a shortcut to the Straight Checkers room. Bad idea.
The library has only one address - http://checkersusa.com/books/ , I reserve the right to move things inside around.
You are missing on great many things in the library - History and Bibliography for example.
There is also an invaluable New Arrivals page, it shows each new book and magazine as it arrives.

[tgf]

Who is in Levonia, Michigan?

[George Hay]

I don't know who is in Livonia, Michigan, but it is an even 144 miles east of Grand Rapids, Michigan!
Michigan has a rich history of checkers: straight, pool, and big board!
--George Hay

[tgf]

....

[tgf]

Liam Stephens has completed posting his Irish Draughts Association journal, and John Reade already finished most of the English Draughts Association journal he edited with Dennis Pawlek since 2004.
Question - can anyone help with previous 43 years?

[tgf]

The 1987-7 issue of the Charles Walker's ICHF magazine contains pictures (page 18 and 19) of the Russian grandmaster Alexandr Shvartzman who won the tournament never having played Straight Checkers before!
I believe Alexandr did the same in Italy winning their tournament never having played Italian Damas before. Alexander was also a many times World Champion in the International (10x10) checkers and also he was the World Champion in Russian and Brazilian checkers - an extremely talented player!

But what bothers me is that the pictures in the magazine are not of Alexandr - they are of another Russian grandmaster Vitaliy Gabrielyan. One can assume that Alexandr was not available and Vitaliy took his place?

Shvartzman Gabrielyan

[sergio]

I believe Alexandr did the same in Italy winning their tournament never having played Italian Damas before.

As far as I know, Alexander Schwarzman has never won a tournament in Italian Draughts.

Sergio Scarpetta

[tgf]

I asked for confirmation on the Russian site, nothing yet - but on my own I found a comment made by Iser Kuperman, do not know which year it was but probably like 40 years back.
Kuperman said that after they finished with European Championship in Rome they got invited to play in the Italian Open. Kuperman went sight-seeing but Andris Andreiko decided "why not". He spent a couple of hours studying and got three medals - for the first place, for most wins and for best game.

There were other Russian players who played in Italian checkers tournaments. For example Anatoly Veltman stayed in Italy in 1978-79 and gained a wide reputation playing for Ostia.
I too played for Ladispoli and still have a couple of medals and a newspaper article from those days

[sergio]

Before replying to tgf's last post, I needed to seek more information on Russian players and their remarkable results in Italian draughts tournaments. I asked people who are keeping our database of tournaments up-to-date. So far, no one from Russia has never won any official Italian draughts tournaments.
Until the late 80’s, in official Italian draughts tournaments, players used to divide into divisions, and no one couldn’t play in Master division if he wasn’t a Master in Italian draughts.

I presume that the tournaments, which you mentioned, weren’t official and there were no Italian masters.

I would appreciate it, if you could let me know more details about this matter.

Respectfully
Sergio Scarpetta

[tgf]

I think the key to Kuperman's account is your " no one couldn’t play in Master division ". Since both Kuperman and Andreiko are dead they can not answer, so all I can do is speculate that Andreiko entered into some free-to-all amateur division of some tournament and due to his remarkable ingenuity won it. Anatoly Veltman stayed in Italy over a year and I heard his name mentioned in our Ladispoli (near Rome) club/barbershop often. One time we drove on several cars to a day-long tournament held in some castle, where hundreds of players competed as teams. Tournament organization was fantastic, the count welcomed us in his house and provided a superb lunch with his servants dressed in his colors. I got a couple of medals and later on they gave me a newspaper describing the event but not understanding italian I have no idea what tournament it was. The paper name was PAESE SERA as of February 20, 1979. The article name was Concluso il trofeo IGM, it mentioned both me and Veltman and my guess that Ladispoli was third in group B. This phrase might tell you what it was - L'ha organizzata il Centro Damistico Romano, sotto l'egida della Federazionne autonoma.

Years later David Kotin, then a young lad in Los Angeles, visited me, he was interested in many types of checkers and he convinced me to part with my Italian Dama book. He also got a few Russian and 10x10 books, free of course, I never take money. Dave went to teach in Japan, married there an English woman, lived in Great Brittain and now lives in Chechoslovakia I believe. He wrote to me that he plays all kind of tournaments including various types of checkers.

When VOG started in about 2000 I dominated the Italian room, one of my students there was a baker, Dario or something like this. I was taking on all comers untill one day they brought a young guy who at his age already had several Italian titles. I got him into my favorite game where I normally surprised everyone with an unusual pitch. I recall my own surprise how fast he responded. I delivered my next "star" move anticipating him giving up - in returm he made a pitch of his own - and it was me who fell. Most of all I recall how bored he was with my game, I was way out of my league - I never played Italian checkers after that.

[sergio]

I glanced through our official magazines and I found a very short article on “Trofeo IGM a Squadre”. It took place in Rome on February 18, 1979.
According to the article there were two groups, A and B. In the A group there were only two big teams with high-level players, whereas in the B group there were 7 teams with medium-level players.

Sergio Scarpetta

[tgf]

The reason I mentioned the Italian book that got away was because it was a modern textbook, with games, endings and instructions.
The books I have in the Italian Checkers section are mostly from the 19th Century, very rare and revered - but they are more of the historical value, less to learn the modern play.
Roberto Cartella and Gianfranco Borghetti were very enthusiastic to preserve and display the Italian Dama heritage, and I hope there are more books and magazines coming from Italy.

[tgf]

This article http://checkersusa.com/books/Magazines/ ... andela.pdf was taken from the Keystone Checker Review.
What is this publication, can someone send samples of it?