Checkers at the WMSG

Hallo,

the WMSG are approaching, and my travel preparations intensify.
This week we in Germany received the invitations and apartment reservations.
We all were busy filling visa forms, copying our flight tickets and probably spent more time on the phone then preparing for the event :-(

A problem is that one of our players, the former German Champion Dennis Pawlek, currently resides in Bangkok, Thailand.
Apart from the state of emergency there, he has to arrange his travel there almost on his own.
I also watched with amazement the establishing of the WMSG website here by the FMJD.

I have to say that I am impressed, especially with the fact that my contributions, which were pictures of the German Checker players and the including of the WCDF rating on the tournament base for Checkers, were quickly positively responded.

Keep on the good work!
Here I also want to suggest that the Checker players may take a look at their entry at the tournament base.
Especially the lack of pictures can be dealt with, if you sent in a digitalized photo of yourself if you are a participant.

The last week also brought some other exciting developments.
First, the GAYP World Championship in Checkers were played, and in a very close match the defending Champion Ron King of Barbados defeated his challenger Lubabalo Kondlo of South Africa by just one game.

Here we see them both at the board at the 2007 US nationals, an event won by Kondlo (left).
King (right) had to concede two draws to Kondlo then, and does not look happy about that.

Kondlo, who lost the last game in this year’s match, had recently problems with the organizations promoting Checkers in South Africa, and that lead to him not being nominated for the WMSG.
I hope that the readers of this bloq will agree that at least the best players in the world should get a chance to play in Beijing, and I hope that an arrangement for Lubabalo can be found in the next four weeks.
Secondly, the Turkemenistan Draughts Federation’s bid for the GAYP World Women Championship was accepted by the WCDF and the challenger Jan Mortimer, of New Zealand, now has to accept or reject this offer until the end of September.
Looks like finally we have things moving towards a match in which the defending youthful World Champion, Amangul Durdyeva is facing her first challenger since winning the title in Prague 2005.
Talking about the Women’s World Championship, I also like to point out that the WMSG event is also regarded as a Qualifier for a World Championship Match, but, of course, in 3-move, as the WMSG will be played in that style.
So the best placed Lady in Beijing will be endorsed as challenger to the current World Champion, Amangul Durdyeva.
Yes, you read correctly.
Amangul holds both the GAYP and 3-move title, as she beat the former World champion Pat Breen of Ireland in Ireland last year.
Pat will also play in Beijing, and must be regarded as the favourite to finish as best lady, but as I read, there might be 7-8 ladies playing at the WMSG, so things might not be so easy for her to qualify for a revenge against Amangul.

After all these exciting news for the Checker players I might say a few word about our game.
Checkers has the simplest rules, and from time to time news agencies wrote that it has been solved.
As a players myself, I only know of a claim By Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer and his Chinook team, that they have proven that Checkers, if played in GAYP style, is a drawn game.
Even Schaeffer has not solved the game in the sense that a database or program exists that can play all positions perfect.
He just picked a few openings, known to be the best and checked their main lines with his program and found them to be drawish.
In my mind his prove is not a prove, but just something that was known to the checker theory for a very long time:
If no one makes a mistake, the result of a game must be drawn.
In Beijing , the games r played in a different style then the style Schaffer has “solved”.
This style is called “3-move restriction”
The first three moves of the opening r chosen randomly from a deck of 156 openings, that r regarded as playable.
Then the players play two games starting from that opening, as it is tradition to switch colours after the first game, so that each players has to play the opening with both(!) red and white.
For newcomers to the game, this may seem strange, but in that way a special preparation for the given opponent is almost impossible, and with a little bit of luck you may find an opening that suits your playing style, but not your opponents style;-))

If I take a look at the list of participants of the WMSG at the checkers event, I am surprised and excited.
Some players are from countries that hold no regular national tournaments, and I guess that a lot of “former” Draughts 100 and Shashki players take a try to conquer our game.
This might be no bad approach, as the current 3-move World champion and heavily favourite for Beijing, Alex Moiseyev, in his younger days also played Shaski and then switched to Draughts 100. Finally he became American citizen, and also World Champion in Checkers.

Alex Moiseyev (left) and Patricia “Pat” Breen, pictured at the Irish Open 2007.

So maybe a future World Champion might emerge from Beijing, and new federations will begin to organize regular Checker tournaments.

Finally, I must apologize that I did not introduced myself properly.
I am 39, German, originally a chess player and chess book collector, but a fellow chess book collector sent me a few checker books and asked me if I was interested, and guess what…
I became hooked!
Since then I have played at a few Checker tournaments in the last five years, including a World Championship Qualifier. I won the German Championship once and finished 2nd two times and since 2007 I am also the president of the Checkers section of the Interessengemeinschaft Damespiel in Deutschland (IGDD). I was nominated for Beijing as I am the 2nd best rated German player on the WCDF rating list

The WCDF is a body. originally formed independent, that acts as the Checkers section for the FMJD.

Did I forget something?
Oh yes: how do I look like?
So here, this is me:

I am sitting on the right, and I am just wondering why I did not see the remarkable, but also quite apparent coup that allowed Tomas Novoty to draw a lost ending against me.
Checkers may be simple, but the simplest things can be overlooked easily as we all know.

P.S:
As I am German, this bloq will sometimes also contain my “diary” in my native language.
So if you don’t understand me, don’t be surprised, it just might be that I switched languages.