Checkers is my family

Alexander Moiseyev enjoyed the World Mind Sports Games and not only because he won the checkers 3-move competition. He absolutely enjoys seeing old friends with whom he lost all contact after his emigration from the Soviet Union to the USA. According to a Russian saying ‘you cannot cross a river twice’. ‘This catching up with old friends feels almost as if I am crossing the river again, though’ the five times world champion in checkers 3-moves says.

Moiseyev began to play draughts on the 64 square board when he was 7 years old. He switched to the 10×10 international draughts in the late seventies and became a master in this international mind sport. When he left the Soviet Union in 1991, he was ranked 17th on the FMJD rating list. He did not play for 5 years and restarted in 1996. Shortly after his restart he got aware that there would not be a future for him in the 10×10 game. He then decided to have his second emigration… from 10×10 to checkers. In the USA checkers is considered to be a kids game, but Moiseev is fighting against that prejudice. ‘It is really sport’, he says.

Switching to the checkers game was not an easy solution, but Moiseyev took the consequences: learning the rules, new tactics and strategies. Of course he benefits from his 10×10 draughts background: the process of organizing, calculating and strategic formations are more or less the same. Moiseev still studies checkers for 2 or 3 hours per day. He plays any tournament in the US when it is within the reach of an 8 hour drive from his home. All together he plays 180 games a year. He loves doing it, the checkers world is like a nice family.