Sunday, April 13, 1986 - Reading Eagle Newspaper - Section E Article about Earl Hangen of Reading, PA who was the captain of many mail play checkers ladders for many years. He was the former ACF Mail Player Director, who corresponded and coordinated many ladders and kept records of all the mail play games which he would publish in the annual Mail ID's (Inter-District Mail Games booklets) Earl was the source center for all 3 mail play ladders: Badgers, Tribble, and Woods. Hangen's ID Mail Play Off Booklets was the source for new lines of play for the tuff 3-move openings. (Another article from Earl's Scrapbook posted on ACF Forum by Jay Hinnershitz)
Ray Koehler included a checker primer with this interview article on Earl Hangen... See Earl, Page E-6 below.
In the spring of 1990 the University of Alberta hosted a checkers AI conference, which brought together programmers and the ACF. They planned to allow computer programs to compete in the Nationals later that year, a first time for such an event. Chinook and Dodgen's second-generation program, Checkers Experimental, played in the 1990 U.S. National Checker Championships, that summer. There are too many stories to tell about the 1990 Nationals, but you can read about much of what went on in Jonathan Schaeffer's book, One Jump Ahead -- Challenging Human Supremacy in Checkers. This is a wonderful book to read!
September 26, 1992 Reading Eagle Newspaper - Lifestyle -