Get To Know A Few Checker Champions

Checkers, also known worldwide as Draughts, is a simple game to learn but a difficult one to master. In 2017 79 players qualified to play in the World Draughts Championships through competing and winning in several championships held in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Several people have mastered the game at a world level here are just a few of their stories.

Amangul Berdieva
(born Amangul Durdyeva)

Amangul BerdievaShe is the first female Go As You Please (GAYP) World Checkers Championship winner. She won this honor in Prague in 2005 against Jan Mortimer. She retained her title through 2012. She did not play in 2013. She played 3-move Checkers against Nadiya Chyzhevska of Ukraine and captured the title in 2016 and holds it still for 2017. For years 2015-2017 she also held the GAYP championship titles.

All five of her siblings and her father play checkers at the professional level. In 2009 she was ranked 19 worldwide and first for female Checker players. Her coach is her brother Maksat Durdyev, 2010 world champion of three moves English Draughts.

Marion Tinsley

Marion TinsleyHe was the World Champion from 1955-1958 and again from 1975-1991. He only lost 7 matches in his career. None of them were World Championship matches and two of them were to Chinook, a computer program. It was said that Tinsley could see 64 moves ahead into the future.

 

Chinook

Chinook is a computer program that plays Checkers, developed at the University of Alberta. In 1990 it won the right to compete in the World Championship of checkers as it came in second to Marion Tinsley in the US Nationals. The computer program was first denied entry to the contests and “Man vs. Machine Championship” was born. After competing for several years, Johnathan Schaeffer, team leader, decided to close the door to competing and have Chinook solve checkers. A solution to checkers was found and published in 2007.
Sergio Scarpetta

Sergio ScarpettaSergio Scarpetta from Italy won the 2017 3-move title as well as 2014-2016 GAYP title. He began playing in international tournaments in 2011. In 2012 he won the silver medal in France at the 2012 World Mind Sports Games in checkers. This event was also the qualifying event for 3-move World Championship for 2013. In December of 2014 he won the silver medal at SportAccord World Mind Games in checkers in Beijing and in 2015 he won the European Cup.

 

Michele Borghetti

Michele BorghettiMichele Borghetti from Italy won the 2016 and 2017 GAYP title. Prior to that, he was the Winner of the 3-move World Championship for 2013-2017. In 2017 he won his championship against Scarpetta. In Rome. In 2017 he won a 3-move European Championship.

 

Alexander Schwarzman

Alexander SchwarzmanSchwarzman, from Russia, is an international grandmaster in three different types of checkers: Brazillian, Russian, and International. He is the international draughts world champion for 2017. He I knew for his games that involve encirclements and his creative playing style that involves sacrifices.

 

This is just a short list of those who are notable in the game of checkers or in its history. Modern checkers has a history of over 100 years, but there are mentions of some form of the game as far back as 3000 BCE to the ancient Egyptians.