NCCA (North Carolina Checker Association) President, Teal Stanley, welcomed 9 checker players.
5 Masters and 4 Majors players: 5 NC, plus 2 OH, and one each
from NE, & VA made the field. Teal opened our tournament with prayer. He covered the rules and time clock requirements in the
business meeting prior to the tournament. Teal reported the combined balance of EJ & RBC as $18,621.04
less tournament withdrawal.
All players paid a $25 entry fee (excluding Life NCCA
Members), and they were
required to use digital time clocks, set for a 2.5 hour round as 35 Minutes +3 seconds per side (1¼ hours) per game and record their games. We played one division as seven
rounds of Modified Swiss that allowed 4 rounds Friday and 3 on Saturday.Congratulations! To GM Alex Moiseyev from Dublin, OH, our tournament
winner of our NC State Open Tournament for the eleventh time and as our
2026 North Carolina State Champion was MS Dr. John Webster from Stoneville, NC which was his
thirteenth time
winning the State Tile. Actually there was a three way tie between
John, Teal, and Tim on game points; however, John having the highest honor
points was awarded the title. BTW, John Webster is the oldest North
Carolina checker player to ever hold the NC State Checker Championship as
age 84. Congratulations! To MS Ryan Pronk from Chesapeake, VA as second place and
MS John Webster from Stoneville, NC, MS Teal Stanley from Greensboro, NC,
and MS Tim Laverty from Graham, NC tied for
3rd place, but separated as: 3, 4, & 5 place winners by honor points.
Matthew Clark from Charlotte, NC took sixth place, and recognized as our 2026 North Carolina State Majors Champion.
We appreciate Ruslan Palamarchuk from Ohio, a Ukrainian/American who
registers to play but withdrew after two rounds. He plays
Russian draughts, also known as Shashki which allows men to jump forward and
backwards, and a king may jump in any direction if there is an empty square
behind the capture piece and continue jumping in any direction if there is
another empty square behind a capture, as "flying king" We
apologize for the confusion and hopefully Ruslan will get familiar with
playing English "Straight" Checkers and play
in another tournament.
Jim and Debbie Albin from Omaha, Nebraska flew in to Norfolk, VA to visit
their daughter, and then their daughter drove Dad & Mom to Archdale so
Jim could play checkers. We recognize Jim Albin as traveling the furthest distance to the tournament, Omaha to
Archdale - 1,300 car miles one way.
Everyone received a
NCCA pen as their door prize.
The $1,505.00 prize fund represents contributions: Larry Keen
$200, Joe McDaniel $200 via Richard Beckwith/ACF, Teal Stanley $40, John
Webster $20, Jeff Webster $ 20, and entry fees from: Alex, Ryan, Jim,
Ruslan, & Matt for $125, plus a NCCA $1,300 withdrawal. You may click the blue tap below for detail
information. Incidentally, I received a $100 check from Dave
Beacky from Sarasota by mail on May 19th designated for our Pizza Party.
I text messaged Dave saying I got the check and thanking him for
contributing to our tournament. We will apply it to VA/D4 in
Collinsville, VA. Gayle Smith, our scorekeeper posted the Tournament Schedule and the Payout
Schedule on the wall-board with tournament contributors which we appreciated very much.
We had a cooler of bottle water and the Hotel furnished fresh hot coffee in the lobby.Alex Moiseyev brought his newest book,
a hardcover copy of
"All My Games - Alexander Moiseyev"
for players to view and add to their wish list. Order on-line at Amazon for $94.99 or
buy at a Target Store. Author covers more than 2,300 games from 1996-2013 in his
book. It has "Selected Positions and Diagrams" where anything interesting that happened in a game was captured, diagrammed and shortly commented upon, totaling over 1,300 diagrams, and 250
annotated games. You gain insight into Alex's personality and thinking when reader how psychology, nerves and other human factors are involved in the game of checkers. Everyone who owns it, gives it
an excellent review.Jimmy Tomlin has written for "Our State" since 1998. He has been a feature writer and columnist for "The High Point Enterprise" since 1990. Jimmy visited
our State Tournament Friday and published a nice article (Checker players compete for state championship) that ran in "The High Point Enterprise"
on Saturday, 5/16/26.We announced PopTop Checkers as the sponsor of the 2026 Southern Open Championship Tournament in Waxhaw, NC -
Friday, June 26th & Saturday, 27th with a $8,750.00 Prize Fund.We offer a big "Thank You" to all who help make this tournament a success,
especially Gayle, our score-keeper and referee.
