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Women Checkers Player
Patricia Breen
Although the International checkers circuit
doesn't see the faces of many young women across
the checkerboard, numerous opponents have faced
one of the three checker playing Breen sisters
from Ireland.
  
Patricia Breen Grandmaster Checkers Champion,
Breen
Breen Grandmaster Checkers sisters
Anne-Marie Breen Grandmaster Checkers Champion
Born in 1976, women
checkers player Patricia Breen is the
oldest of the sisterly trio, but also one of
a family of seven girls from Bennekerry, Carlow,
Ireland. Their father, Patrick Breen, introduced
his three daughters to the inherent challenge
and mysteries of the moves on a checkerboard.
As a wonderful side benefit to his teachings,
the women checkers players Breen sisters have
all won national titles in the checkers game
arena, just like their father.
All three of the Breen sisters, Patricia
Breen, Karena and Anne-Marie, have become
Grandmasters in the checkers game. The youngest
sister is Ann-Marie and she won the 1993
Irish Junior Checker Championship, whereas
Karena, middle sister, took the title for
the 1994 British and Irish Ladies Checker
Championships. Checkers player Patricia Breen
is the oldest of the checker playing Breen
sisters and perhaps has the most fame for
her International checkers play and status
as former Ladies World Checker Game Champion.
Patricia’s checkers career began at
an early age and she certainly appears to
have had a natural affinity for the intricacies
of the game. Checkers player Patricia Breen
first began her tenure at the checkerboard
in the competitive play in the Under 10 division
at the Community Games, a nationwide organization
that promotes events and activities such
as checkers matches among local youth under
17. Patricia participated in the Under 14
division and won the gold medal by taking
first place at the Community Checkers Games
that year. Even more amazing a feat for the
young checkers player was her championship
win in 1988 where she became the Irish Women’s
Champion at the tender age of 12. Shortly
after this win, in 1989, the young Irish
checkers master at the advanced age of thirteen
challenged Joan Caws for the Women’s
World Championship title. Joan and Pat tied
the match with a score of six wins, six losses
and eight draws, but as Joan held the World
Champion title in checkers already, she
retained it for another four years until
Patricia Breen challenged for the title again.
The following year, this fourteen-year old
Irish checkers master was invited to play
in a youth division match in Russia and her
feat was to finish with the best overall
checkers score of the tournament match. Later
that same year, undaunted, champion checkers
player Patricia faced mostly male opposition
across the checkerboard in the Irish Open
Checkers Championship and yet successfully
placed first in the Intermediate division
of the tournament.
The last decade of the 20th century was
an important one for Ireland’s Patricia
Breen in a number of significant ways. Not
only did her expertise and skill at the checkerboard
continue to develop, but it also paid off
in a series of successful wins:
- 1992 ~
Champion checkers player Patricia Breen
represented Ireland on the senior Irish
International Draughts/Checkers team in
a series of matches between the national
checkers teams of Ireland, Wales, England
and Scotland; Patricia’s
game play surprised all participants when
she scored twelve wins and four draws out
of sixteen checkers games; Patricia Breen
was awarded with a special trophy for best
player of the tournament series.
- 1993 ~
Patricia Breen was the challenger against
Joan Caws in the Women’s World Title
Championship Match in checkers; the event
was hosted in Weston-Super-Mare, England,
where the 16-year old Irish checkers master
displayed her experience, confidence and
skill at the checkerboard defeating Joan
soundly with a final score of eight wins,
one loss and five draws.
- 1994 ~
Player Patricia Breen retained her World
Title.
- 1995 ~
Younger sister, Karena Breen, challenged
for the Women’s World Checkers Championship
Title and Patricia Breen was called upon
to defend it and this unique World Championship
Match was hosted at the International Checker
Hall of Fame in Petal, Mississippi; there
really was no contest according to the
final score of the checkers match when
Patricia defeated her sister with five
wins, one loss and ten draws and so retained
her title of World Champion.
- 1995 ~
Irish checkers queen participated in the
English Open Championship and placed a
respectable 3rd, consisting the number
of seasoned players.
- 1996/2000 ~
Again women checkers player Patricia Breen
represented Ireland at the international
level checkers matches against the national
British teams across the isles
At the beginning of the millennium, Patricia’s
checkers reputation awarded her another feather
in her checkered cap, as she was asked to participate
as a member of the Britain/Ireland team that
would play against the U.S. team in the seventh
International Match in 2001. This was indeed
a great honor and unique experience for this
young checkers master, as Patricia Breen was
the first woman to achieve this recognition
in the 100 year history of the checkers game
competition.
In 2003, Breen once again participated in
the English Open Draughts/Checkers Championship
held at the Isle-of-Wight. Patricia Breen
was only one of three women who competed at
the checkerboard against an arena of twenty-one
male opponents. Again Patricia’s inherent
checkers skill and expertise brought her to
a near win, as she placed second to English
Champion, Fred Buckby’s win.
Since that time, the Irish checkers Grandmaster
has continued to display her checkerboard acumen,
where the summer of 2003 brought Breen to Cookstown,
County Tyrone for the International Festival
of Draughts/Checkers in Northern Ireland. Here
spectators saw Patricia Breen defend her Women’s
World Title against 2002 U.S. Women’s
3-Move National Tournament Champion, Jan Mortimer,
checkers Grandmaster from New Zealand. This
fourth title challenge for Patricia Breen was
a solid competition for both players with Breen,
now 27, winning the first four games of the
match. In the second half of the tournament,
Jan made a valiant comeback but was not able
to catch the score. Patricia retained the Women’s
World Championship Checkers Game Title with
a final score of five wins, one loss and ten
draws ~ the exact same result as that played
against her sister, Karena, in 1995.
Patricia Breen & Jan Mortimer
Women’s World Title Championship 3-Move
Checkers Match 2003
Patricia Breen’s continued successes
in the 21st century:
- 2004 ~
Patricia Breen represented Ireland yet
again at International level with her participation
in the nation matches against England,
Scotland and Wales.
- 2005 ~
The Irish checkers Grandmaster represented
the Britain/Ireland International team
with Joan Caws and other notable British
checkers players against the U.S. International
Team Match.
Checkers Champions
Patricia Breen
vs
Jim Morrison |
Checkers Champions
Patricia Breen
vs
Michael Holmes |
2007 ~ Player
Patricia Breen participated in the Scottish
Open Championship, Masters division, at Stonehaven,
Aberdeenshire, Scotland in July and placed
6th.
- The British & Irish GAYP Checkers
Championships were held at Castletroy,
Limerick, in September, and the tournament
attracted 20 entries comprising master
checkers players from throughout Ireland,
England and Scotland and included 10 rounds
of checkerboard play; Section "A" or
the Masters division was won by Shane
Mc Cosker, with 2nd place going to Frank
Moran and a 3rd place tie to Patricia Breen
and Sean Cronin.
- The big event for women’s checkers
players in 2007 was the World Championship
Title Match where Patricia Breen, World
3-Move Champion, defended her title against
challenger, Amangul Durdyev, World GAYP
Champion from Turkmenistan; the title match
was indeed between the world’s foremost
women checkers competitors, who
were rated at an even caliber of checkers
game play and held the title of Woman Grandmaster
(WGM).
- The WCM was held during the All-Ireland
Open Draughts/Checkers Championship in
Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland from
Oct. 27-31, 2007 and both competitors played
excellent opposition games at the checkerboard
but the end result was that the 20 year
old
Amangul defeated the reigning Women’s
World Champion since 1993 by a final score
of eight wins, two losses and six draws.
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