world qualifier 2019

[rich beckwith]

Thanks very much for your interest in considering making a bid. If you like, I do have some "bid forms" that can provide some planning guidelines that I can send.

[rich beckwith]

2019 World Qualifier standings (thru 2 rounds of :

Place Name Total
1 Vadym, Lapin UKR 7
2 Sergio, Scarpetta ITA 6
3 Carson, Farley BAR 6
3 Matteo, Bernini ITA 6
5 Melikaya, Nonyukela RSA 6
6 Ron, King BAR 4
6 Nathaniel, Grosvenor BAR 4
8 Jack, Francis BAR 4
8 Jeffrey, Clarke BAR 4
8 Jim, Morrison USA 4
8 Rawle, Williams BAR 4
12 Colin, Price BAR 4
13 Igor, Martynov GER 4
14 Mark, Barnett BAR 4
15 Julian, Burgess BAR 3
15 Ryan, Eustace BAR 3
17 Hascol, Trotman BAR 3
18 Kent, Layne BAR 2
19 Dmitrii, Melnikov RUS 1
20 Michael, Cheeseman BAR 1

Woman World Championship (Through 2 rounds)

1 Wilma Branch BAR 8
2 Tetiana Zaitseva UKR 6
3 Wynnell Neverson BAR 6
4 Nadiya Chyzhevska UKR 5
5 Vitalia Doumesh NED 5
6 Samantha Holder BAR 2
7 Lyubylana Turiy USA 0

[rich beckwith]

Jack Francis won all his games today to become co-leader at the half-way point.

2019 World Qualifier (Through 4 rounds)

Place Name Fed. Total
1 Melikaya, Nonyukela RSA 12
2 Sergio, Scarpetta ITA 12
3 Jack, Francis BAR 12
4 Matteo, Bernini ITA 10
5 Igor, Martynov GER 10
6 Jim, Morrison USA 9
7 Ron, King BAR 9
8 Carson, Farley BAR 9
9 Rawle, Williams BAR 8
10 Jeffrey, Clarke BAR 8
11 Colin, Price BAR 8
12 Nathaniel, Grosvenor BAR 7
12 Vadym, Lapin UKR 7
14 Julian, Burgess BAR 7
15 Mark, Barnett BAR 7
16 Michael, Cheeseman BAR 6
17 Ryan, Eustace BAR 5
18 Hascol, Trotman BAR 5
18 Kent, Layne BAR 5
20 Dmitrii, Melnikov RUS 4

Wilma Branch continues to lead the women, but has to play the next Top 3 women head-to-head in the final three rounds.

Womans World Championship (Through 4 rounds)

1 Wilma Branch BAR 14
2 Tetiana Zaitseva UKR 13
3 Nadiya Chyzhevska UKR 13
4 Vitalia Doumesh NED 10
5 Wynnell Neverson BAR 8
6 Samantha Holder BAR 6
7 Lyubylana Turiy USA 0

A round-robin youth championship began today, with the two Italians doing well.

World Youth Championship (Through 5 Rounds)

1 Elia Cantatore ITA 18
2 David Tamborin ITA 17
3 Shaunnnell Neverson BAR 13
4 Jayden Gibson BAR 11
5 Gabriel Clarke BAR 11
6 Job Sargeant BAR 10
7 Ross Williams BAR 9
8 Junior Daley BAR 5
9 Sir Jackson BAR 5
10 Demitri Squires BAR 1

Some of the youth played their 6th-round games already,
with Cantatore, Gibson, and Clark each scoring 4 points.

[rich beckwith]

2019 World Qualifier (Through 6 of 8 rounds)

Place Name Fed. Total
1 Sergio, Scarpetta ITA 16
1 Jack, Francis BAR 16
3 Melikaya, Nonyukela RSA 15
4 Matteo, Bernini ITA 15
5 Ron, King BAR 15
6 Igor, Martynov GER 15
7 Jim, Morrison USA 12
8 Rawle, Williams BAR 12
9 Jeffrey, Clarke BAR 12
10 Carson, Farley BAR 12
11 Mark, Barnett BAR 12
12 Colin, Price BAR 11
13 Nathaniel, Grosvenor BAR 11
14 Julian, Burgess BAR 11
15 Vadym, Lapin UKR 11
16 Dmitrii, Melnikov RUS 11
17 Michael, Cheeseman BAR 9
18 Kent, Layne BAR 9
19 Hascol, Trotman BAR 8
20 Ryan, Eustace BAR 7

Women World Championship (Through 6 of 7 rounds)

1 Tetiana Zaitseva UKR 21
2 Nadiya Chyzhevska UKR 19
3 Wilma Branch BAR 16
4 Wynnell Neverson BAR 16
5 Vitalia Doumesh NED 13
6 Samantha Holder BAR 9
7 Lyubylana Turiy USA 2

Final round-robin pairings tomorrow are Chyzhevska-Holder, Zaitseva-Neverson, Doumesh-Branch (Turiy - bye 4 pts)

World Youth Championship (final / 9 rds.)

1 Elia Cantatore ITA 34
2 Davide Tamborin ITA 33
3 Gabriel Clarke BAR 23
4 Jayden Gibson BAR 22
5 Shaunnell Neverson BAR 21
6 Job Sargeant BAR 17
7 Sir Jackson BAR 13
8 Ross Williams BAR 5
9 Junior Daley BAR 5
10 Demitri Squires BAR 1

[rich beckwith]

Matteo Bernini won his last two games to rally to win!

Place Name Fed. Total S.B.
1 Matteo, Bernini ITA 22 98.3
2 Sergio, Scarpetta ITA 22 91
3 Jack, Francis BAR 20 88.8
4 Melikaya, Nonyukela RSA 20 84.5
5 Ron, King BAR 17 69.8
6 Carson, Farley BAR 17 68.5
7 Rawle, Williams BAR 17 66.5
8 Vadym, Lapin UKR 17 58.5
9 Jim, Morrison USA 16 68.5
10 Igor, Martynov GER 16 59.8
11 Colin, Price BAR 16 57.5
T12 Nathaniel, Grosvenor BAR 16 56
T12 Julian, Burgess BAR 16 56
14 Jeffrey, Clarke BAR 15 62.5
15 Mark, Barnett BAR 15 53.5
16 Dmitrii, Melnikov RUS 12
17 Kent, Layne BAR 12
18 Ryan, Eustace BAR 12
19 Hascol, Trotman BAR 11
20 Michael, Cheeseman BAR 11

Womans World Championship (Final / 7 rds)

1 Tetiana Zaitseva UKR 24
2 Nadiya Chyzhevska UKR 23
3 Wilma Branch BAR 19
4 Wynnell Neverson BAR 17
5 Vitalia Doumesh NED 14
6 Samantha Holder BAR 9
7 Lyubylana Turiy USA 6

[George Hay]

Congratulations to Matteo Bernini on winning the Go-As-You-Please World Qualifier, earning the right to challenge
GAYP World Champion Lubabalo Kondlo.

Congratulations to Tetiana Zaitseva for winning the Women's GAYP World Championship, adding to her Women's 3-move World Championship won last year,...and also her Youth GAYP World Championship won two years ago.

Congratulations to Elia Cantatore for winning the Youth GAYP World Championship, adding to his Youth 3-move World Championship won last year.

--George Hay

[jimloy]

[Event "2019 GAYP Qualifier"]
[Date "2019"]
[Black "Igor Martynov"]
[White "Matteo Bernini"]
[Result "0-1"]
1. 11-15 21-17 2. 09-13 25-21 3. 08-11 24-19(A) 4. 15x24 28x19 5. 5-9(B) 23-18 6. 10-15 19x10 7. 7x23 27x18 8. 12-16(C) 32-28(D) 9. 16-20(E) 30-25(F) 10. 11-15?(G) 18x11 11. 20-24 28x19 12. 9-14 17x10 13. 6x24 22-18 14. 3-7(H) 18-15* 15. 7x16 15-11(I) 16. 16-20 26-23?(J) 17. 24-27 31x24 18. 20x27 23-19 19. 27-31 19-16 20. 31-27 16-12 21. 27-23 12-8 22. 1-6 25-22 23. 6-10 8-3 24. 10-15 3-7(K) 25. 15-19(L) 7-10 26. 19-24 10-14 27. 24-27(M) 22-18 28. 27-31 29-25 29. 31-27(N,O) 25-22 30. 27-24?(P) 14-17 31. 23x14 17x10 32. 24-19 22-18 33. 19-23 18-14 34. 13-17 10-15 35. 17-22 15-18 36. 23-19 18x25 37. 19-16 25-22 38. 16x7 14-9 39. 4-8 22-18 40. 8-11 18-23 41. 7-10 9-5 42. 11-15 21-17 43. 2-7 5-1 44. 7-11 1-5 45. 11-16 5-9 46. 10-7 9-14 47. 7-11 0-1(Q) {time}

A - 30-25 draw, published play nowadays.
B - 11-15 may be the most popular.
C - 1-5 draw, R. Jordan - C. Barker, 1900 WCM g.28.
D - 31-27 draw, F. Dunne - J. Richmond, 1892 English Ty.
E - 3-8 draw, H. Newcomb - J. Bradford, 1920 National.
F - 31-27 draw, KingsRow, then 1-5 28-24 4-8 24-19 8-12 29-25 or 19-15 draw.
G - Gives winning chances, but try 4-8! 26-23 6-10 23-19 9-14! 18-9 8-12! 31-27 11-16 27-23 3-7! 9-5 20-24 RW.
H - 24-28 or others draw.
I - 21-17 13-22 25-18 16-20 draw, same as the next comment.
J - 21-17* 13-22 25-18 24-27 31-24 20-27 26-22 27-31 29-25* 31-27 18-14* 1-6 22-17* 27-23 17-13* draw.
K - 3-8! 15-19* a more difficult RW.
L - 15-18! 22-15 4-8 18-22 8-11 22-26 RW may be much easier.
M - Another player suggested 23-19! 14-10 19-16 10-7 16-12 (4-8! is a much easier RW, S. Scarpetta) 7-3 24-27 RW.
N - The computer plays 2-6 {23-19 also looks difficult} 18-15 23-19 14-10 6-9 RW apparently.
O - I play 31-26? 18-15 23-19?? 14-18 19-10 25-22 WW; saves a lot of time.
P - 23-19 (or 23-26 RW) 14-10 27-23 (as good as anything) 18-14 23-27 RW looks like a long way to go still.
Q - White won on time. A classic game in checkers history. This is apparently the game that won the tournament in the last round!

[Igor]

Thanks to Jim for the analysis. It was my worst game of my whole Checkers life. I apologize to Sergio for having deprived him of a well-deserved victory in the QT-2019 because of my such a bad play.

[jimloy]

I have begun recording the games at http://www.usacheckers.com/forum/viewto ... f=4&t=4201.

I just finished recording the Women's World Championship games (same link as above). I still have a few mysterious games to study in the men's tournament.

[Igor]

Dear checkers lovers. Recently, I published on the largest Russian draughts site my detailed report about the Festival of different types of draughts on a 64-cell board and my vacation in Barbados (in Russian). Take a look, you can find there my impressions, opinions and a description of the dramatic situation at the finish of QT-2019, as well as my nice photos of this fantastic island - Barbados.

http://64-100.com/glazami-neudachnika

[jimloy]

At the last move of the above game, I typed "White won on time." That comment should seem inadequate. It reflects that both players were very likely in great time trouble for much of the game. And that is why I didn't award any double question marks to either player. Difficult moves (which use up time; we've all been there) in time trouble make up a big part of our lives. Igor could have made more winning moves and still lost on time, making the game the really really worst game of his entire life. These games are relatively rare, and we examine them at leisure, and we forget that we will play flawed games when we should not. A few Grandmasters have said to me, I should not have made that move even in time pressure. But it is going to happen, isn't it? Until you start playing perfectly. I still admire that game and the dramatic scramble that it shows. What a game. It still takes my breath away.

I have been looking at time pressure in chess. Because they have lots of speed chess tournaments, and all of the games get published. The above checker game is no anomaly. It is happening almost every day to the greatest chess players in the world. My time pressure is not completely my fault, it is also my opponent's fault. And it may often be the dreaded "No win scenario."

By the way, I once saw a chess game in which a player played a blatantly unsound losing queen sacrifice (in an ending). I think the queen could be captured in two different ways, both ways being good enough. And his shocked opponent ran out of time, thinking "What just happened?"

[Igor]

It was not very pleasant for me to write about the tournaments where I performed poorly, but if not me, then who? It is clear that the most curious thing for Checkers lovers is to get information directly from the participants and witnesses of the events. Fans also want to know more than standart universal texts that are suitable for all occasions, that such and such a player has achieved a well-deserved victory with his great performance. It is always interesting to learn more about the price of victory and the path to success. Dry crosstables with results also do not convey all the dinamics and tragedies of events.

I will start in order. So, on a small exotic island of Barbados measuring only 20 by 30 km in the Atlantic Ocean in the Eastern of Carebbean sea from 1 to 19 October 2019 a Festival of various types of Draughts on 64-square board was held. The Festival program consisted of 3 parts independent from each other. First, under the auspices of the IDF, 3 one-day tournaments took place – in Russian, Brazilian Draughts and Pool Checkers. These 3 types of Draughts are very similar to each other in stragedy and differ mainly in tactics. Then English-American Checkers competitions were held: „GAYP“ World Qualifier and the „3-move“ match between the actual World Champion Sergio Scarpetta and the Challenger Ron Suki King.

I have an educational and tourist interest in Checkers. In addition to the rank of the competition, the venue is also important to me. Having learned about the Draughts Festival in Barbados, I immediately got the idea to visit it again. I was there a year ago, and this time I wanted to come with my wife Nadja, first to play Checkers, and then stay for a week and spend my vacation there – to combine the useful with the pleasant.

The competitions in Barbados were preceded by a whole chain of some incredible events. Somewhere in June 2019 we read information on the Internet that red poisonous algae appeared in the Caribbean sea in huge quantities and stretched from the American up to the African continent. We also found photos of beaches from Barbados, littered with these algae. Naturally, the question arose, do we really need to go there? I contacted via Facebook with my friends from Barbados and asked them about these seaweed. I was told that they were brought to the island every year and carried away - "vice versa", so that I had to take it easy and calmly come.


Algae in Barbados. A source: "myfamilytravels.com"

At the end of August an unprecedented hurricane of enormous destructive power, Dorian, swept over the Caribbean. In the neighboring Bahamas, wind speeds reached 350 km/h, demolished 13 thousands houses and claimed 55 lives. I called Barbados again. Barbadians were lucky this time too - the hurricane passed by, almost no damage, only power interruptions were observed.


The Bahamas after Dorian. Source: „Los Angeles Times“

However, this was not all! Literally two weeks before departure, a stunning message spread around the whole World – the bankruptcy of the largest and oldest British travel agency Thomas Cook. And our tickets were purchased from Condor, which was its German subsidiary. The problems affected 600 thousand tourists at once. All newspapers and television were full of horrible pictures and stories, chaos at airports, tourists sleeping on the streets who were not allowed into hotels because no money was transferred there. We followed the “breaking news” with constant excitement. What will happen to our Condor? Our flight was at stake, as well as all the money for it. Only 2 days before departure, relief came. The German government allocated a special loan of 380 million euros, resolved some legal issues and saved Condor. Our flight took place on time in accordance with the schedule. WOW!!!


Chaos at airports. Source: Agency"Reuters"

Ron Suki King participated in all 3 parts of the Festival. He is very popular in Barbados and everyone on the island knows him. They say that if you write the address on envelope: „Barbados, to Ron Suki King“ and send it per post, then the letter will be handed directly to him. In the first part of the Festival there were no special surprises. As expected, Russians Dmitry Melnikov and Vladimir Langin were in the top two in all three tournaments. As for me, I didn't show anything outstanding there. More successful played Tetiana Zaitseva and Vadim Lapin who live in America now. They both took third place once. Tanya and Vadim brought to Barbados their 2-month-old baby who was smiling all the time. Tanya's mother, a young, pretty woman, also flew to meet her grandson. It turns out to be easier to get to Barbados than to the USA, there is no need to apply for a visa.



20 players from 7 countries took part in the Checkers World Qualifier among men. 4 countries and 7 participants were represented in the Women's World Championship. To the Youth World Championship only Italians came from other countries. Unfortunately, Turkmenia lost interest to Checkers, they have a lot of strong players. The tournaments were covered in detail on local television and in the press. A number of local children's tournaments were held in Barbados at the same time with international Checkers events.

Men‘s Checkers tournament finished with an unexpected sensational victory for the young Italian star Matteo Bernini. The fact that Matteo became the winner of the World Qualifier Tournament is exclusively “mea culpa” - “my fault”! Yes, I was the main sad actor in this Checkers tragedy that determined the course of the further Checkers history and the choice of the challenger for the match with the actual World Champion Lubabalo Kondlo.

I‘ll tell you how it happened. After 6th round, it means 2 before the end of the tournament, passions were heated up to the limit and a narrow circle of 6 challengers was formed. The winner, as well as the prize three, were to be determined only among them. The rest of the participants were already 3 or more points behind and no longer claimed anything. So, these were Sergio Scarpetta (Italy) and Jack Francis (Barbados) – +4 or 16 points each; followed by Matteo Bernini (Italy), Melikaya Nonyukela (South Africa), Ron King (Barbados) and Igor Martynov (Germany). Despite the defeat by King in the first round, I was also among the chosen ones and was making my own ambitious plans.
Then there were big knockout games directly inside the leading six. Everyone had to win and „blood“ poured in full, unfortunately, most of all mine. In the next 7th round, I had a double-edged ending in the second game with Nonyukela, where both sides had 3 men and 3 kings and all hang in the center. I misst an inconspicuous shot and lost 3-1, Bernini won against Francis 3-1, but Scarpetta beat King 3-1 and came out on the clear first place.
The tournament reached its culmination in the last „bloody“ round. Nonyukela lost and won one game to Lapin 2-2, the dispute between two strongest barbadians ended with Francis winning over King 3-1, Scarpetta won another victory over Clarke 3-1 and the gap from the pursuers further increased in 2 points.
It remained only one last game of the tournament – mine with Bernini. I was only satisfied with a double win in this match, only in this case I clung to the top three. In our first game, I rejected all the draw variants, went to the unnecessary complications and lost. But in the second game I managed to achieve a winning ending.
And now the situation has developed: everyone was gratulating Sergio on a well-deserved victory. While Sergio still refused to accept congratulations, since the tournament was not over yet and theoretically only Matteo could catch up with him. But he was having the hopeless ending with me, where the ultimate dream could be only draw. Of course, noone could even emagine that he might win here. I missed one opportunity after another to finish the game quickly and chose a long technical win which was also not difficuld but required the accuracy. Later I was shown 6(!!!) possible winning options in varying degrees of difficulty and duration. However, at some point I lost my guard and made a simple blunder. The win vanished, and only a draw remained. Overwhelmed by the missed opportunity, I forgot about the clock and soon ... lost on time. A lot of amotions from Matteo! The most amasing thing was that at this moment, seeing my shocked state, Sergio was first who came up to me with soothing words:

    - „Don‘t worry! Take it easy! It‘s just a game!“

This was a worthy example of true sports ethics! Nevertheless, it was I who deprived Sergio of his well-deserved victory in this tournament. As a result, Matteo Bernini not only caught up with Sergio Scarpetta on points but also passed him on coefficient. Although Sergio led the entire tournament and played against all the leading players, in the first round he faced an opponent who finished the tournament last and spoiled his performance. The competition regulations did not contain a clause about removing the weakest player when calculating coefficients.
So overnight I lost both the game and the prize money. However, the real loser was not me, but Sergio. Realizing this, I immediately apologized to him. Sport is sport. The strongest doesn't always win. Otherwise, it would be boring!



Of course, the merits of Matteo Bernini cannot be belittled. He is very strong and not a random Checkers player. Matteo has already been in the top three in the World Qualifiers several times. However, there was still a great element of sporting happiness in this victory. Sometimes luck beats skill!
So the first one – Matteo Bernini, second - Sergio Scarpetta – +6 or 22 points, third – Jack Francis, who beat Melikaya Nonyukela by the coefficient, both had +4 or 20 points.

The Women's Checkers World Championship was held in a Round-Robin system, with only 7 players taking part. Here the fight for the Champion title was fought between two Ukrainians Tetiana Zaitseva and Nadiya Chyzhevska. Just like last year, Tetiana won. Mainly 2 Barbados women claimed the bronze medal and the third prize was won by Wilma Branch.

Among the Youths, both Italians competed for gold, leaving far behind all the other Barbadians. So the Champion was Eliya Cantatore, silver for Davide Tamborin and bronze for Gabriel Clark.

I still had a week of vacation on the island and wanted to forget everything about Checkers as soon as possible after my disastrous performance. Only sun, air and water! However, Checkers did not leave me, and I became indirectly connected with it. After all, there was still the match between Sergio Scarpetta and Ron King for the title of World Champion to version „3-move“.
The day before this event in the evening, I contacted Sergio to wish him success and found out the strange situation he was in. He remained alone since morning, all other Italians flew home. He vacated his hotel room, took his things to the lobby, sat on his suitcases and waited, literally and figuratively, by the sea for the weather. According to the terms of the contract, the organizers of the match were obliged to provide him with accomodation and food for the duration of the match and two days before the start. The organizers knew exactly his location and phone number. And so Sergio waited for 6 hours but no one was going to pick him up. Nobody answered all his calls and emails. Moreover, his bank card did not work, there was only a couple of days of free cash left, and the return ticket was only 10 days later.
Usually unflappable and always extremely restrained, Sergio was completely at a loss, as he did not know what to do and whether the match would take place at all. He later confessed to me that it was the worst day in his life. I was glad to have the opportunity to support Sergio in difficuld times and invited him to think together. I found out that our Rio Guesthouse where I was staying had an available single room, which by the way, was 3 times cheaper than in his hotel and then I helped him to carry the bags. So he spent one night in our guest house. Only at 10 p.m. a message came from Mrs. King – the wife and manager of the Challenger that next morning Sergio could move to the hotel ordered for him and the match would start on schedule at 10 a.m.. I don‘t think this situation was a part of King‘s conceived strategy to throw the opponent off balance. In my opinion, it was some irresponsible carelessness.



My wife Nadja and I took a patrontage over Sergio so that he should not feel lonely. We provided him with moral support and enjoyed evenings together after the games as well as his day off. We visited cozy cafes, went to a big karaoke, just at the same place where King‘s bar was located. The match was held all the time in different places – either in the building of the Central Bank, or at the University, or somewhere else in order to promote the game. I was not present at the match, but learned the details directly from Sergio after the games. So, he told me that he did not want to listen to Mrs. King's explanations about the crash of her smartphone, but suggested at once:

    - „Forget it! I want to play the match!“

During the match, King's phone sometimes rang. This could be sufficient reason to admit an instant defeat, but Sergio did not want to use such opportunity, but longed for a clean victory.
Already on the first day of the match, Sergio immediately made it clear who is the boss of the house, and won two games. In the future, he left his opponent no chances and defeated King with a huge score of 33 – 17 (+8 -1), retaining his title. A match should consist of a maximum of 32 games of four per day. Sergio finished his match ahead of schedule. I had no doubt from the very beginning that Sergio would win this match.



My vacation in Barbados was very exciting, filled with a lot of events, adventures and emotions. The most interesting photos about the Draughts-Checkers festival in Barbados and my vacation on the island can be found in the following two photo albums:

Draughts:https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipM ... HUmdkZlJB

Vacation: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipM ... WGNKMmhn

To the good end, there are few examples from my games in Barbados.

I. Martynov – V. Lapin (Brazilian Draughts)



On the remaining Red’s only move, White makes a shot. By the way, the same shot goes in Pool Checkers, as well:
1. 10-15 14-10 2. 7x14 16x7 3. 3x10 30-25 4. 21x30x23 24-19 5. 23x16 20x11x18x9x2 – WW

I. Martynov – K. Price (Checkers)



1. 1-5 18-14 2. 9x18 23x14 3. 20-24 27x20 4. 8-11 20-16 5. 11x20 31-27 (A) 6. 7-11(B) 14x7 7. 11-16 19-15 (C) 8. 2x18 22x15 9. 13x22 25x18 10. 16-19 18-14 11. 6-9 14-10 12. 9-14 29-25 13. 14-18 15-11 14. 5-9 11-7 15. 9-13 7-2 16. 13-17 25-21 17. 17-22 – and White resigned soon

A) loses, correct: 5. … 28-24 – etc.
B) misses a win: 6. 6-9 28-24 7. 9x18 22x6 8. 13x22 25x18 9. 2x9 19-15 10. 12-16 29-25 11. 16-19 15-11 12. 7x16 24x15 13. 16-19 – taking a man on 27 with the next move - RW
C) This was exactly what I was counting on when I chose for this option. Escape was still possible in complications: 7. … 27-23 8. 2x11 17-14 9. 20-24 22-18 10. 13-17 25-21 – etc.

[Ingo_Zachos]

Thank you Igor for this wonderful, detailed report.

Once again congratulation to Matteo Bernini for a well-deserved, nailbiter win.

I look forward to your match with Lubabalo. Two great players and gentlemen.

Big congratulations to Sergio, unlucky 2nd of the Qualifier, but very impressibe match winner against the legendary Ron King in the Old Lion's territory. I hope someone one day writes a book about Suki's unique career and his impressive natural style.

Can Sergio make it three in a row and defeat the last of his legendary predecessors?

I think 2021 could be the come back year for checkers/draughts with two matches like this on the horizon plus a Qualifier with new entries fromm new corners of the World.

Greetinx from rainy Dortmund, Germany

Ingo Zachos