Online checkers library.

[tgf]

I received a strange book - two volumes of almost 800 pages titled 'Miscellanies' written by Robert Twiss; city of London (United Kingdom) in 1805.
There is some chess and draughts chapters there in the second volume. The book is mentioned in the Literature of Checkers.
I will probably cut out draughts pages.

[George Hay]

There seem to be a famous pitcher named Christy Mathewson and he was an avid checker player.
Here is an interesting article describing how the checker book that belonged to him was sold for $26,000 dllars!
http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/auc ... 5/429.html

Christy Mathewson was widely considered as a checkerist of at least expert level. In one particular checkers game, Christy Mathewson beat Newell Banks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up9sw9dN0Yw

In the 1905 World Series the New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Athletics 4-1 in the best of seven games, with Mathewson pitching three wins for the Giants!


Christy Mathewson's signature and writing on Durgin's Single Corner is historically significant to the Grand Old Game of Baseball, as well as the Grand Old Game of Checkers.

Fortunately, Durgin's Single Corner is available in the Online Checkers Library.
http://checkersusa.com/books/straight/D ... r_1894.pdf

--George Hay

[tgf]

That is a great video, who made it?

[George Hay]

It was made by George Gerhauser, aka Checkercycle. He has a series of checkers videos on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/user/checkercycle

--George Hay

[tgf]

I wonder what to do with the "Philidorian" magazines (1838) - they are mostly chess, but also others games including English and Polish draughts.
Should I cut checkers articles out or put everything as is? Which room they belong to?

P.S. Someone named Wm. Bone composed both chess and checkers positions.

[tgf]

With no feedback I decided to put the Philidorian in the 10x10 room, what they have on English draughts there is few and simple.

[tgf]

The mysterious European benefactor sent yet more books from William Timothy Call's "Literature of Checkers" list.
First it was Miscellanies by Robert Twiss 1805, #3 on the list, then The Philidorian by George Walker 1838, #17 and now it is #24 - The Hand-book of Games by Henry Bohn 1850!
All the books were printed in the city of London.

Here are his comments on the last book:
Some basics of the game are explained (huffing looks like was valid) and there are 69 games with variants from Sturges, 150 critical positions with solutions by Sturges, six games with variants by R. Martin and twelve 'original critical positions' (sic) by R. Martin

[liam stephens]

Also an amazing footnote on page 405 referring to the game in New Zealand.

[tgf]

Hi Liam,

I found this viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2196 thread where you wrote about the New Zealand newspaper column 5 years ago - has anyone collected those clippings?

[liam stephens]

Hi Jake,

I don't know, I thought the ACF maintained an archive of all postings ?

[tgf]

My outtake is that local enthusiasts should research and collect the clippings, put them in historical significance with add-on pictures, opinions, introductions, etc. and then present that work in the online museum. For the Otago Witness a good starting point is http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bi ... --1----0--
I posted such leads in the past but they never found takers...

[liam stephens]

Yes, the Otago Witness is a minefield of information on Draughts. It ran for many years and I am still slowly perusing its contents.
When I was editor of the IDA Newsletter, I used information from it whenever the opportunity arose.
Also from time to time I included articles such as the one you referred to, in the ACF forum.
One does what one can within the constraints of time and effort available.
The harvest is rich, but the labourers are few.

That reference in Bohn is also mentioned by Oldbury on page 118 of his Encyclopaedia.
Also, I recall including it as a question in one of the Christmas quizzes.(2007 I think)

[tgf]

Older players tend to become historians of the game, to trace the quote to its origin for example.
The library is a fertile ground for research, or for editors to fill their pages with bits of history...

[liam stephens]

Thank you Jake,
The library is an excellent project, long may it continue.

Another long running newspaper draughts column was the Melbourne Weekly Times.
Editor Hugh Egan wrote a salutary warning for the pyramid builders, in his article Advice for Beginners, as recorded on page 94 of Boland’s Famous Positions:
“At the beginning of a game, it is better to play your pieces towards the centre of the board in the form of a pyramid, than to play into the side square,
because a piece at the side can move only in one direction, and consequently loses half its power.”
This seems logical no doubt, and the “pyramid idea” is regarded as gospel by the compilers of some handbooks on indoor games in which draughts receives
somewhat indifferent – in fact, harmful -treatment.
Architecture in draughts, however, fails to stimulate the practical player’s imagination. Certainly he finds some strength and beauty in exposed rows,
and more particularly in diagonal lines; but he has no taste for “pyramid building”.
When confronted with play of this kind, he at once sets to work to lay his hidden “mine” in an effort to shatter the structure to his own advantage.
It is with the “pyramid builder” that the expert player has vast opportunities for those “pyrotechnical displays,” those shots and strokes, which so astonish the newcomer.

Digressing from this topic for a moment, it might, by lateral thinking, prove positive to mention Ciurlionis’ Sonata of the Pyramids' (which can be viewed on Google).
According to Robert Craft (writing in the Times Literary Supplement) this painting was inspirational in leading to the composition of the Rite of Spring, by the composer Igor Stravinsky.
See:
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1275660.ece

[tgf]

One of the Russian players did exactly what I suggested on their forum - he put together a series of issues of a popular column from the 60" into a single PDF.
I helped writing an introduction and a book was born!