Here is a little biography on Bill Salot:

Many top players played exhibitions in Detroit, so Bill can honestly say he played many of them, but never in a tournament.  The ones he remember were Newell Banks (many times because he lived in Detroit), Willie Ryan (one time, but he corresponded a lot with him), Kenneth Grover (the only game he ever won from a top player), Tom Wiswell (impressed him as the best exhibition player), and Nathan Rubin (who came out of retirement to do an exhibition). Also 3 Detroit players took him to visit Asa Long at his home in Toledo, and they each played him a practice game. He recalls having many conversations with Tinsley, Chamblee, and Reisman, but never played them.  Bill said he played in one Michigan tournament and came in last.  

All of that was when he was a teenager. Then he went to college at Univ. of Michigan, spent two years in the army during the Korean War, but never went overseas.  He met his wife Lou in Colonial Heights when he was stationed in Fort Lee, and moved to Virginia after he was discharged.  He went to work as a junior engineer for Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation in 1953, which years later become Honeywell International of Hopewell. He also married his wife of 56 years that same year, settled in Colonial Heights, and he is still working full time as a principal engineer with the same company, also 56 years. You may not realize that Colonial Heights, Hopewell, and Petersburg are known locally as the tri-cities because they are so close together.  Fort Lee is in the middle of the triangle.  Louise, Bill's wife "Lou" grew up in Petersburg, so she has lived in the Tri-cities all her life. 

Bill said, "Looking back over the last 56 years, I have done relatively little with checkers."   "I spent more time composing checker problems than I did playing the game."  He barely kept in touch with activities through checker magazines, collected many checker books, helped Ernie Churchill with his compilations, and played in 3 Virginia tournaments, all many years ago, with less than stellar results, but that is how he met, Ellis Baker, Paul Davis, Les Balderson, and others. Once Elbert Lowder passed through Colonial Heights and looked him up, and they discussed the 9-14 Octopus."  

Bill said what revived his interest a couple of years ago was the discovery that he could play on the internet.  What a revelation!

Bill won the 2009 North Carolina Open Majors in Oxford, NC and recently won the 2009 Virginia State Open, distinguishing himself as the new Virginia State Champion.

We are happy Bill is again playing tournament checkers and we expect he will be a regular at most of our NC and VA events.   BTW, here is one of his problems:

Solution: 24-20, 18-23, 20-16, 2-7, 16-12, 7-11, 12-8, 11-16, 8-3, 16-20, 3-7, 15-18, 7-2, 6-9, 2-6, 9-13, 31-26, 23-27, 6-10, 27-31, 10-15, 31-22, 30-25, 22-29, 15-22(A) White wins

A: "Mr. Salot has many fine problems in print and I consider this a good example of his skill. He is also a find crossboard player and occasionally visits the New York Club, where he holds his own with the best of them." -Tom Wiswell, "The Science of Checkers and Draughts," Pg. 46 (copied from www.usacheckers.com)

2009 Virginia Results   |  2009 Tournament Dates