This book is a MUST

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Today I had received in mail new book from Jim Loy: "The Magical Checker Play of Elbert Lowder" and I immediately jumped on it. I already had electronic parts of this book which Mr. Loy kindly shared with me while preparing the book - for validation and corrrection.

However, having a final bounded (spiral) copy of the book is a whole lot difference. Book has 448 pages where 260 Elbert Lowder games from his brilliant career are fully annotated by Mr. Loy. Each game has at least one diagram. In fact, the book contains references to much more games of Elbert Lowder, perhaps over 1,000 or so.

All annotations and refences are easy to read and diagrams greatly help to visualize and observe text. Sometimes it's a simple references to PP and sources, sometimes - comments, sometimes - emotional comments!

Great book, great author! I like this book so much and we need much more books like this about our legendary players. We have book with collection of M. Tinsley games, but we are missing many others. We don't have books about Hellman, Long, Lafferty, Oldbury etc etc etc

Jim, you are my hero! Many thanks for such a wonderul gift. You made me a day !

Sincerely,

Alex Moiseyev

[jimloy]

Very kind words. Thank you. You're my hero, too, along with Tinsley and Lowder.

Alex is helping me proof read the book. And it is already two pages longer than what he has seen, and is growing. I will be delaying publication for a few more weeks, because we are still finding errors. It's paperback with spiral binding. And my guess is that it will be $30 (+$3 shipping to overseas), because it is so darned big.

Yes, we need more books. Hugh Devlin and I have already begun work on a book of Oldbury's best games. Hugh is selecting games, and I have helped by sending him Oldbury games and annotations from American tournaments. We are both very busy, and this book will probably take several years to write.

Many years from now, I plan to write books of the best games of Hellman, Long, Lafferty, Wyllie, R. Jordan, Gonotsky, and Freedman. If Ron King never writes a book of his best games, then maybe, 20 years from now, I will have time to write that book, too.

We will never have another Tinsley era. But I really believe that we have already begun a smaller golden era of checkers.

[jimloy]

Here is the ACFB ad for this book:

The Magical Checker Play of Elbert Lowder by Jim Loy. Humongous 450 pages paperback spiral binding, 260 featured games, with hundreds of diagrams, hundreds of complete Lowder games in the notes, and comments by A. Moiseyev and KingsRow, $30 (add $5 for overseas shipping).

[Alex_Moiseyev]

As far as I know, the number of printed copies is extremely limited and less than 40. Most (or all) of them will be sold at National in Las Vegas. I would highly recommend everyone who needs this book - order it now, do not wait !

[jimloy]

I see the book is already in the ACF online store: http://usacheckers.com/viewstore.php?cat_id=2

I now have 41 copies. If I need more, I can print them up and have them bound by Kinkos within 12 hours. I print the covers on my ink jet printer, and the rest of the book on my laser printer. That saves me enough money to have Kinkos do the spiral binding and still make a tiny profit. So actually the supply is unlimited!

[jimloy]

I just mailed the book to Ireland, and was shocked to find that the postage was $11. I'm going to have to raise the overseas shipping charge from $5 to $8. The ACF store will have that charge for my book soon. Sorry about that, folks, but I can't afford to lose money.

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Jim, actually it could be $9, depends the way you used to mail it (10-14 business days). You probably used option 5-7 days.

Alex

[jimloy]

The person at the Post Office told me they no longer have the 10-14 day option. I'll have to check into that.

[Alex_Moiseyev]

I'll have to check into that.

In such sutuations I usually say: "Sorry, I don't speak English very well. Can you write it down ?" ... Sometimes it works

[Alan Millhone]

Hello everyone:

Just now sent Mr. Loy and email ordering two of his new book . Any new book is a most welcome addition to the rich literature of our game and a most fitting way to honor Mr. Lowder in this way. He was truly an innovative Grand Master who was not afraid to try daring lines of play to get away from the norm. I only got to play him on a couple of occasions, but treasure those games with him.

Any person who puts together any book on our game is to be commended and supported for his/her efforts.

Sincerely:
Alan Millhone, President
American Checker Federation

[jimloy]

To Alex: I'll try to find out if there is a cheaper postage option to send my book to England and the rest of Europe.

It looks like priority mail ($11) is now the cheapest, if the book will fit into the priority mail envelope. There is not even any sending by ship (with broken rudder) over several weeks.