A (checkers) championship season
World's best will battle out board game here
May 1, 2005
Check it out: Anderson will host the world championship of checkers this summer. The world’s No. 1 player, Alexander Moiseyev, an American immigrant, and No. 2 Ron "Suki" King of Barbados will face off at City Hall on May 23, beginning 10 days of tournament play.
Checkers, or draughts, the name preferred by English players and others in the United Kingdom, is described in simple terms as a board game that involves jumping. It may sound easy, but at this level, it’s not your granddaughter’s game.
In fact, there are more than a dozen variations of the game thought to have first been played circa 1100 A.D. in France, according to an on-line encyclopedia of games. And there is more to this game than a simple slide of a disk and a whoop of "King me!" In fact, we found it interesting that one checkers Web site we visited was available in 16 languages.
In tournament play, the three-move restriction is preferred, according to our research. "The first three moves are drawn at random from a set of accepted openings. Two games are played with the chosen opening, each player having a turn at either side. This tends to reduce the number of draws and can make for more exciting matches. Three-move restriction has been played in the United States championship since 1934."
One can easily play checkers on-line these days, but true aficionados prefer the one-on-one that comes in serious tournament play — or even not-so-serious lazy Saturday afternoons with lemonade as the beverage of choice.
Thanks to local organizers (and checkers fans) Tom Martin and Joe Redd for bringing the tournament to Anderson, the first time in 40 years the championship will be held in an American city.
This tournament might not have the draw of a concert or a balloon race, but it still adds to Anderson’s status as a player in the events game.