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World Championship
Checkers Stage
“Men Only”
In the arena of world championship checkers
and International Draughts, World Champions
have been recorded since the Men’s
World Cup Championship of 1885. From that
year until 1947, the checkers champions from
France were in dominance with only two years
where the Dutch stepped in and took the title
from the French players. At this time world
championship checkers was played by
international men only. In 1912, Herman Hoogland
won the championship and in 1928 Benedictus
Springer finished first for the world championship
checkers title.
The World Championship in checkers did not take place
every year, and was not held during World War I and
II, but during the years 1948, 1951-2, and 1954, Piet
Roozenburg of the Netherlands became the dominant checkers
player in the world International circuit. Then in
1956 Marcel Deslauriers, a Canadian from Montreal
Quebec, was the successful one-time winner of the coveted
World Checkers Championship title.
However, two years later Iser Koeperman from the Soviet
Union stepped in and took the dominant role on the
International checkers stage from 1958 until 1971,
though Wjatsjeslav Sjtsjogoljev did defeat his countryman
and win the title in 1960 and 1964, and the FMJD gave
the World Championship title to Baba Sy of Senegal,
posthumously, after Iser Koeperman failed to appear
for the world championship checkers match in 1963.
From 1972 until 1984, the championship reins changed
hands yet again, and the Dutch took control over the
checkerboard. International checkers men like Ton Sijbrands,
Jannes van der Wal, and Harm Wiersma from the Netherlands
defeated the roster of ambitious players during this
period with only the 1974 title going to Iser Koeperman,
Soviet Union, and then Anatoli Gantwarg, the Soviet
Union winning the 1978 and 1980 world checkers championships.
More International Checkers Men
Then came a period of major dominance in the International
checkers arena from 1984 until 2007 by the master players
from the Soviet Union, and later, Russia, after the
Soviet split. The notable Russian Grandmasters who
contested the title across the checkerboard were Anatoli
Gantwarg, Alexander Dybman, Alexei Tsjizjov, Aleksandr
Georgiev, and Alexander Schwartzman, wherein the last
three masters have carried the World Championship title
successfully since 1988. Only in 1994 did Guntis Valneris
from Latvia usurp the title from the Russians in a
one time win.
The Russian Grandmasters have since dominated the
International checkers scene and the men’s World
Championship title through their checkerboard prowess,
game strategies, and inherent endgame tactics and techniques.
Isidore Weiss
World
International Checkers Champion
1867-1936
Isodore was born in France and was the
first World Champion in draughts/checkers
to win eight championships from 1894 until
1911. This record had never been matched
by any French, Dutch, or Russian checkers
player until almost a century later when
Alexei Tsjizjov not only matched the record,
but actually beat it with a total of ten
World Checkers Championship titles to his
name.
During his checkers reign, Weiss played a
strong game at the checkerboard, both strategically
and tactically. His technical skills and feel
for the game were certainly a large part of
his long term success as a World Champion in
the checkers International arena. World checkers
championships have been a "men
only checkers" club to this day.
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