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First African World Checker
Champion Baba Sy
African board game players enjoy both checkers
and chess, as they are counterparts of one
another in many African countries but with
different challenges and outcomes.
“Chess and
checkers are often thought of a “twin
cousins” in the board sport
arena. Millions of people have enjoyed
checkers at a basic level and of those,
many also enjoy chess. The relationship
between these two games will always be
inextricably linked. It is for this reason
that we can appreciate the excellence of
its participants.”
In the history of Africa, the late World
Checkers Champion, Grandmaster, Baba Sy from
Senegal, has been recorded as the greatest
checkers player of their culture. Sy’s
checkerboard techniques, developed by playing
the game in a checkers community during his
youth and young adulthood as well as in his
many International tournament matches in
Europe paved the way for other talented African
players that appeared on the checkers game
scene during and after his reign on the
International circuit.
World checkers champion Baba Sy was born
in Senegal, West Africa, in 1935 and was
one of the first Africans to play in European
tournament championships. As with many young
skilled checkers enthusiasts, he played the
game locally to hone his skills, but branched
out overseas to test the waters with European
opponents.
According to a written account by French
master player, Emile Biscons, it discussed
how he discovered this young Senegalese checkers/draughts
player and encouraged Baba Sy to try his
checkers skills in the European checkers
circuit.
Biscons, a civil servant within the French
Administration in Senegal, had been in West
Africa for several years and both his passion
for the Continent and his love of their culture
was supreme. However, in 1959 he found himself
in Dakar and during his sojourn in this city,
he loved to visit with the checkers players
who gathered together on a regular basis.
Biscons truly appreciated the checkers game
of these Africans because they had a natural
instinct to their board play and a distinct
sense of spontaneity. As a result, Emile
developed a friendly association within the
African checkers circle, and became a well
liked and respected spectator.
During one of his visits to the checkers
assemblage, Biscons noticed the arrival of
a young African man. This fellow was very
poorly dressed and walked barefoot. The twenty-three
year old was none other than Baba Sy. Observing
him play in numerous checkers games, Biscons
quickly realized that Baba Sy was a naturally
talented and skilled checkerboard player.
By 1959, Baba Sy was already known as the
unchallenged champion of draughts (checkers),
though football and martial arts were the
national games of Senegal. Baba Sy was
young and strong, but applied his inherent
skills to the mind sport of checkers instead.
As a result of Baba’s
game ingenuity and quick mind, he readily
developed a solid reputation in Dakar and
the surrounding area within his home community.
Biscons felt that Baba Sy's ability on the
checkerboard was too great to allow it only
to be viewed in his native Senegal and it
was important that he show the rest of the
checkers world his natural capabilities and
offer the challenge to existing masters in
the checkers circuit.
Emile discussed his observations with Baba
Sy and suggested that this great African
checkers player should present himself in
the French National Draughts (Checkers) Championship
of 1959 in Châtellerault, France. This
was a first time event in Europe. Baba Sy
accepted Biscons’ advice and traveled
to France to enter in this championship match,
and amazingly, he won the French Championship.
This was a true statement of his exceptional
talent, considering the fact that he had
never before played in such an expansive
field of checkers masters.
World Champion Baba Sy
World Checkers Champion Baba Sy then took
Europe by storm and followed his initial
checkers championship success with a string
of match victories.
 
GM Baba Sy, Senegal, intent on checkers play;
reception with Kuperman, Kaplan, Deslauriers,
Dukel, and Sen A. Kaw during 1960 World Championships
in Amsterdam.
But Baba Sy’s true colors as an exceptional
checkerboard talent were displayed in 1960,
when he finished second in the World Championship
just behind the Russian Grandmaster, V. Sjtsjogoljev,
and ahead of Russian Grandmaster, Iser Kuperman,
who was the previous World Champion. This
tournament placement became the start of
a truly dazzling, though relatively short
checkers career in comparison to other world
checkers masters.
 
1960 World Checkers Championship:
Slawa Sjtsjogoljev, Baba Sy, and Iser Kuperman
In 1961, Champion Baba Sy continued his
International checkers career and entered
the International Tournament in Yalta, USSR.
He once again displayed his mastery of the
checkerboard by winning first place in the
match.
During one of the games in the tournament
between the Frenchmen, Michel Hisard and Henri
Chiland, Hisard played 28-22, and Chiland responded
to this move with 5-10. Directly after the
game, champion Baba Sy approached Chiland and
showed him how he could have won the game by
using the Coup Napoleon move.
This trait was part of who Baba Sy was always
interested in improving the game, even if it
was the game of another checkers player.
Baba Sy observing the game between Aeilkema and Geert van Dijk
in the 1st Round game at the Lucas Bols Tournament
in 1961
The following year, Baba Sy and A.M. Kouate
traveled from Senegal to play in the Hague
world checkers tournament match. Beyond regular
tournament matches, the Senegal checkers
player also became a true specialist in simultaneous
games. In the pre match play, Baba
Sy showed clearly how disciplined his game
indeed was as he played simultaneous games
against numerous international opponents.
The other masters saw the mastery of his
great art: how quickly he adapted his game
play, his easy victories, and his astonishing
checkers skill with varied combinations against
an unsurpassed amount of opponents for that
time period.
Baba Sy at The Hague
January 27, 1962
The above photo shows the Senegalese checkers
master improving the world record in Simultaneous
Play to an astounding 150 games. In
order to achieve such a feat, the player
must have an alert and observant mind as
well as strong checker-board skills. World
checkers champion Baba Sy certainly possessed
that and more.
In the Pulchri studio simultaneous games ‘match’,
Baba Sy’s final score ended with an
amazing 112 wins, five losses, and thirty-three
draws, which resulted in an impressive wins
to losses of 85.6%.
The International World of Checkers 1962.
Baba Sy as spectator to checkers
game between
Lekkerkerker vs Jonkhart Amsterdam.
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Baba Sy in a game with Geert van Dijk
in Suiker Tournament, Ton Sijbrands
as spectator.
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Gournier vs Sy |
Bakhuizen vs Sy |
In each of the three above checkers games in the
Suiker World Checkers Tournament in 1962 held in
Amsterdam, young 12-year-old Ton Sijbrands observes
the games and writes for the Senegalese master checkers
player, Baba Sy. Years later, Ton will face his ‘mentor’ as
a challenging checkers opponent.
When Baba Sy won the Challenge
Mondial held in France in 1962, it earned
the checkers master from Senegal the right to challenge
the reigning checkers World Champion, Iser Kuperman,
for a world championship match and the world title.
Unfortunately, the 1963 Championship Match
between Baba Sy and Iser Kuperman never materialized
for hitherto undisclosed reasons. Before
the checkers match took place, there was
supposedly some dispute between Sy and Kuperman,
and the Russian Federation cancelled the
match. The result was that Iser Kuperman
never appeared and the checkers competition
between these two great players was never
realized. No one in the checkers arena has
full disclosure on the reasons for the cancellation
or any knowledge of the cause for the dispute.
It certainly was a major disappointment for
the Senegalese master. According to former
World Champion and Grandmaster player, Ton
Sijbrands, who observed many of Baba Sy’s
tournament games as a boy and later played
against Baba Sy on numerous occasions during
International matches, the master checkers
player from Senegal did not challenge again
for the World Championship title after this
debacle in 1963.
However, this incident did not deter the
Senegalese checkers master from continuing
to play his favorite board game on the International
checkers scene, and he continued to amaze
his opponents with his checkerboard prowess
and quick analytical mind.
Above, checkers champion Baba Sy is seen
depicted in 1967 at the Brinta Tournament
during a speech ~ checkers wasn't always
a challenging matter, especially during ‘down
time’.
In 1970, Sy played Kuperman for the first time
after the debacle and won the match with a
score of twelve wins to ten. Viewing this result
has given thought to the possibility that Baba
Sy may just have had the edge to beat Iser
Kuperman if the World Championship match had
taken place in 1963, and Baba would have become
the first African checkers master to hold the
checkers World Champion title. Of course, this
is only speculation, and the games could have
gone either way.
Baba Sy concentrating on a move
in the Suikers Tournament, 1970.
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