It is interesting to see that this topic arises frequently on this forum and also arose at George Miller`s BBS a few years ago quite frequently.
As a chess player that turned into a checker/draughts player that has players many variants in tournament play, I can say that the depth of both draughts/checkers in all variants and chess is high enough to prevent a solution of the games, and thus is it surely not possible for any human brain to master it perfectly.
In chess, many endings and some opening lines are now "solved", like in draughts/checkers.
That does mean you can find, by restrictive choice of an opening repertoire, combined with an endgame database, a way to safely draw a game.
In chess and all forms of draughts/checkers we also have to conclude that the playing strengths of the best programs is now higher, especially in rapid and blitz games, then the strengths of any human player.
Alex is right that a player that wants to develop into world class must invest years of study in chess and in all variants of draughts/checkers.
Although a talented player in one particular board game may also develop great talent in another in short time:
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8079
But note that Habu took training lessons from strong grand masters and knew how to train properly. He never had the illusion of becoming a decent IM in chess without hard work, and in interviews he pointed out that further advance would take much more time.
Note that also some chess and checker players were strong, world-class bridge players like Pierre Ghestem or Irina Levitina. But the biggest success in bridge for both came after the left chess and draughts and it took some years to rise to world-class in bridge for them as well.
Switching from one variant of draughts to another is a different story, as the tactics and strategy may be so close that they do not have to learn from scratch.
Many strong Draughts 100 Champions were also strong Champions in Drauhgts 64, like Iser Kouperman or Alexander Schawarzmann. They can make a switch from world-class to world-class in less then four years, and may also be world-class in more then one variant at the same time.
For our variant, as played under the WCDF rules, Italian Dama and Ceska Dama may be the closest relatives, and the success of the Italian players shows that here a switch is possible in little time, but even here you have to study endings and new ballots and some openings that are different.
For Draughts 100 and Draughts 64 players the switch is a bit harder, as the formations are different to judge and the openings and endings are completely different, but still they can be very strong in tactics from the beginning, while a chess grandmaster would have to start from scratch.
Mustafa Durdyev took a few years to rise to world-class, but the example of Nadiya Chyzhevska shows that it is possible to switch in one year, though her lack of pp and positional feeling was still apparent and could have lead to two losses against Amangul. On the other hand her calculation abilities were already very good and helped her to get out of lost positions resulting from bad pp-knowledge and lack of positional feeling.
I think if a player like Schwarzmann or Chizkov or Georgiev would turn to Checkers as played under WCDF rules, he would be competitive in any high-class event, but not a World Champion without deeper study of the books. But I am sure they would know that and study hard, and could get strong enough to win a Qualifier within two or three years.
If a Carlsen or Anand would turn to any form of draughts, it would take 1-2 years to be competitive, and a further 2-3 years to become World-class, and it might be that even then they don’t reach that level, as the visualization is quite different, especially the compulsive capture rule is hard to get by, as is that a piece takes and ends up on the square after the piece that had been taken, as in chess u end up on the square the captured piece stood before.
But I am sure each one of them would not rely on natural skills, but also train with world class players and study hard.
They know it takes hard work and time to form a talent into world-class.
In any mind sport.
Greetinx from Germany,
Ingo Zachos
) who, for the most part if the truth be known, have little knowledge of either game.
. No seriously I have double checked that I posted the correct position trust me it is a draw. Assume that I'm right and try and solve it!. I will post the solution in a couple of days so other people have the chance to solve it.