Louise Ronald, lronald@richmond.gannett.com | 4:03 p.m. EDT August 23, 2014
Ten serious checker players gathered Saturday at Joe's Pizza for an
all-day tournament to name the Indiana state champion.
Last year's champion was Greg Wilmoth of Richmond, who suggested bringing the tournament here for the first time since it began in 1896.
Roger Blaine of Mishawaka organized the tournament for District 6 of the American Checker Federation. After five rounds of two games each, the top scorer from Indiana wins the state title and the top scorer overall is district champion.
For Wilmoth, the win was a thrill. "It was on my bucket list," he said.
Wilmoth has cancer and is unable to work. He estimates he's played 40,000 games of checkers online. "I just love the game," he said.
Edward "Pal" Bucker of Mooresville has been playing checkers since childhood. "My granddad taught me the game," he said.
"So you see what I'm up against," said his first-round opponent, Jerry Miller of Middlebury.
Standard checkers, sometimes called straight checkers or English draughts, was the game of the day. Different countries have different rules for checkers, Blaine explained. Even within the United States, there is a variation called pool checkers, especially popular among African-American players.
"You can't just play one kind of checkers and expect to understand these other kinds," said Blaine.
For this tournament, the first three moves of each game were determined by drawing a card so that players are presented with an unexpected start. "You might be a master and be stuck with a bad opening," Wilmoth said.
Two masters were among Saturday's players, as were many who traveled long distances to participate.
Marvin Yoder left Shipshewana at 5:30 a.m. to get to Richmond in time to have breakfast before the tournament began. "This is the first time we left Shipshewana to play," he said.
Yoder learned checkers as a child but started playing seriously when he was about 36 years old and the game became popular at his workplace. "We'd play mornings, noon, whenever we had a break."
"Some of these guys are awesome players," said Wilmoth.
Staff writer Louise Ronald: (765) 973-4469 or lronald@pal-item.com. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/LouiseRonaldPI.
Checkers club
Anyone interested in starting a checkers club in Richmond is invited to call Greg Wilmoth at (765) 993-9151.