The state of checkers today!

[ae_ted]

WOW I can not believe i missed my good friend's Palomino posting about abuse of women. This is unacceptable in any shape form or manner.
We all post on here and complain about this or that. Our fine president has tried to set a good example of leading us. Lets take a serious look at ourselves. When we talk about World Titles we are talking about a group of active players (ACF) of maybe 150 to 200 people and include the European and other parts of the world maybe 500....lest call it a 1000 just to make it good. A 1000 is a Small Group in this word of billions. The example we have set for our youth and new members and women over the past years that I have been associated with checkers is SAD. It is a wonder that we have young players at all in our organization. I am proud to say that i had had the distinct pleasure to know some of the finest young players to come along. It has always mad me sad to see the example us older "men" have set for these young players. I know most of the women players in the world of checkers either personally such as kim (I loves you even when you are mean to me) and Wilma and have known many others over the years...[oops! days( gentleman don't discuss yrs with women)] such as kiwinurse. I have many women checker players that I consider personal friends and yes i really enjoy teasing but NEVER abuse or let anyone else abuse if I see it going on. We have argued about stuff on here such as money, power, who is qualified, etc etc HOW DOES ANYONE READING THIS EVER EXPECT THE GAME OF CHECKERS TO EXPAND AND GROW WHEN WE ALL ACT .........LETS GET TO IT....STUPID!!! It is time to clean ourselves up and become examples we would be proud of. Alan you can delete this if you chose np.. but occasionally i feel the need to vent. I am proud to know the fine people i have met in real tourns and the fine people i have met online. I hope our youth and women can overlook our stupidity in the way we act occasionally . to all my friends i wish a fine new year!!

[kiwinurse]

Well said Ted. I always knew when we were in gaming zone and later kurnick,that when we teased each other,especially you teddy,it was good natured good hearted bantering,and there were no differences between us, men,women or youth,we all loved checkers,and we didnt sleight one another,except for the silly kids who often made sexual innuendos,but which we ignored.I object to that very silly person who just mentioned that women would never measure up to men in checkers,and therefore why count us!Personally ive seen Pat Breen whip men,masters at that,and American men too Ryan!Not so long ago Ryan told me in Kurnick that noone was better than American players!To me thats a bit bigotted too.Last year i played at the welsh open and did very well at it,it was all men,and master players, might i add.So im very insulted at that.
I too object to the sexual content that Irma was subjected too, and i can only pass it off as stupid kids,certainly not adults that did this.
My advise to you Irma, is to ignore this stupidness,and just get on with getting on.Develope your checkers, forget about the rest,keep away from the people that attack you,theyre not worth it.Stay with the good people who teach love not hate.

[kiwinurse]

A wellknown man in checkers once told me when i was in Barbados for the qualifier there Irma,not to let emotions dictate your actions,thats hard for women,because we often act more from emotions than men do,but if you can conquer them you can do anything,im still learning that

[tommyc]

Dont lose your emotions Jan or Irma.............then you will be as men and we dont want that.Stay feminine with all you emotions intact,fiery and challenge whose male dominating so and so s.Why change for to suit others, be yourself and disregard whose as*****s,and bullies.!!! who only show their sleeked way in the dark of nite ,where they are safe,and wouldnt have the gall to say it to your face!!............these guys are nothing new and they ll be around,sad thing is they see it as some twisted form of entertainment.........so much for the male ego girls ...stay feminine !!!!

[kiwinurse]

I guess thats why Lubabalu beat every american player in the last qualifier Josh,i think you young american players are too puffed up with pride,there are very good and brilliant players in the rest of the world also.

[Greg Murray]

In high school, our wrestling team set a state record for margin of victory that held for about 15 years. Over a two-year span, 7 of us won state championships in our respective weight classes (me included), and 7 others placed either 2nd or 3rd. Yet....not a single one of us would have ever dreamed of being so obnoxious, arrogant, and downright disrespectful to our elders in the sport (or to elders in general) as I have witnessed among some of the young American checkers players here. I say some...because I'm certain that there are others who conduct themselves with class.

The reason us young wrestlers, though brimming with confidence, were not arrogant or disrespectful is because wrestling teaches humility through painful experience. No matter how good you think you are, there is always someone out there who will kick your hind-end and bring you down a notch. A chip on the shoulder always gets knocked off. Not only so, but unexpected injuries often change the odds rapidly & drastically. So, if you DO get to the top, you are grateful, not cocky...because someone, somewhere, is still better, and on a given day all of us can fail.

Remember this post, young men.

Wrestling is like condensed life...because life teaches humility, too. Our young American checkers players, who are so skilled and so promising yet so often clueless where it counts the most, will learn this lesson of humility. It is only a matter of time. And I dare to say they will become better men for it. In the final analysis, they will become better checkers players also.

[kiwinurse]

Thankyou Greg, my sentiments exactly. Just tonite i went into Kurnick to play,and was assailed in my room by Ryan Pronk,who follows me around whenever i go into play,by telling me American players are the greatest in the World,"We are the best, noone can touch us"Its now getting out of hand,i cant play without Ryan bombarding me with this theme.Ive tried to talk to him about humility,but he doesnt seem to understand what that is.
I have nothing against Americans,i have wonderful American friends,but im seriously worried about the state of the minds of these youth,and particularly worried about Ryan who i knew a couple of years ago and used to be a very decent,polite young man with whom i was friendly.From what i understand from quite a few people who have experienced Ryan,hes now a bit of a bully in Kurnick,i tend to ignore him and his mates when he badgers me, but maybe the powers that be need to have a chat to him,and if hes still a member of the american checker federation,i think he is putting that federation to shame with his rantings.

[Ryan Pronk]

Wow, talk about a serious exaggeration. Jan and I continue to argue over checkers superiority (this stems back to the topic of the WCDF Ratings, in which I clearly stated my views). My problem isn't with you Jan, it's with the WCDF. As I have stated previously, the WCDF is possibly the worst run checkers organization in the world. I have tried to let Jan know that the WCDF is still provisional in its ratings (and will be forever). Sadly, she is too thick-skulled to listen reason at all (she has said her ACF rating is too low, which is why she doesn't pay any attention to those ratings).

I have offered solutions on how to correct and make the WCDF ratings accurate (this involves weighting European tournaments differently), but they were ignored, and people only saw me as "anti-non American."

Also, I'm tired of you calling me a bully on Kurnik. I speak my mind when issues I take to heart are brought up. If you have a problem with that, then I'm sorry. I stand behind all my comments on this issue.

On a side note, if the ACF ratings discontinue, then I guess there will no longer be any ratings at all in this game.

But Jan, I beg you, get off your high horse. I hate resorting to name-calling, but your inflated ego has been troubling numerous players for years (and I'm not just talking about youth players).

Best Regards,

Ryan

[tommyc]

T he difference in you and them Greg,is that these guys havent won anything yet!!! Maybe they will be beter people when they are better players???

[Jay Bailey]

Not so long ago Ryan told me in Kurnick that noone was better than American players!

This is true.

Quite simply, Checkers is America. Sure there are a few good players around the world not residing in America, but the facts are that the best aggregate of checker players in the world are American. There seems to be an anti-American sentiment from the international players. The best player in the world right now is American, the best player ever was American, most of our former world champions were American. I'd like to see New Zealand compile a team of 10 checker players. I bet 9 out of 10 would be novices at best.

[tommyc]

Get off ya high horse jolt (or watever your name is and learn a biita manners(that would be a start)

[Nathan Gogo]

Get off ya high horse jolt (or watever your name is and learn a biita manners(that would be a start)

Manners? Look at you. You're specifically calling people out, telling people to have some manners. All Jolt did was defend Ryan Pronk. He never attacked anyone. Talk about hypocritical. Didn't your mother teach you that if you didn't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all? I haven't seen Jolt say anything disrespectful or arrogant, but I've seen you type a bunch of bullshit.

[kiwinurse]

Its not about superiority,or whose best, its about enjoying the game and enjoying playing with and meeting Americans and Non Americans across the board.You young guys are taking away from that by badgering players when they come in to play.There is no anti-american sentiment.Its just a game and not to be treated quite so seriously or so nationally.
New Zealand has a total of perhaps 5-6 serious players,and we are a very small country of about 4 million people,we cannot hope to compete on the level of america,nor would we want too, if thats the attitude that seems to be prevailing with the young men in checkers.

[Alex_Moiseyev]

The most important thing for me is - recognition and acceptance an unfortunate fact that today we, American checkers players, are not as far ahead from other countries, as we were 6-8 years ago. Ryan, you can't rely on just one-few strong players only. The whole picture is not so optimistic for us - in the past several years we didn't get any new young outstanding players ... I assume yourself, Clay and Josh are already there !

At the same time in the world we have several new names - Durdyev family (Mustafa, Bagtiyar, Amangul), Shane McCoskey from Ireland, Lubabalo Kondlo from WCDF.

In other hands - we lost several good players, including E. Lowder and G. Lindsay. No replacement for them yet.

This is the reason why I am not so pro-active in this dispute and stay away. Nothing much to say. Ryan - as an American patriot, I really wish you are right, however reality is slight different We may still have a good chance to win (?) match against "World team", but the score will be close and there is nothing to be proud of this.

In other hands I also know - it is a bit distractive to play in Kurnik when visitors and kibitzors try to speak with you In such cases I usually ignore any message and replace "chat mode screen" by another screen for not seeing any messages, but only the board !

Regards,

Alex

[tommyc]

Did your mother not teach you anything,well obv not............especially to mind yur own business/
I wasnt talking to you !!.hehehe

With the exception of Clayton Nash ...........this other lot couldnt tie Lowder braces??