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Champion
Bill Edwards
at the British Open
Checkers Champion from 1915 to 1998.
Looking across the Atlantic to the distant
shores of South Wales brings to mind another
great British draughts/checkers player by the
name of William Edwards. This Welsh gamer was
born January 28, 1915, in Penrhiwceiber, which
was a small coal mining village in South Wales.
William Edwards was soon nicknamed ‘Bill’,
and as was the case of a number of the checker
greats in history, Bill Edwards was introduced
to the game of checkers by his father, John.
Bill Edwards was initially encouraged by his
father to learn the rudimentary elements of
checkers by offering the boy a penny for every
simple problem he could solve. So by the age
of twelve, Bill began to develop his checkerboard
skills in a very positive and lucrative checkers
game environment. It didn't take Bill Edwards
very long to accumulate a nice little stash
of pennies as he continued to work through
elementary checkers game situations and developed
a solid interest in game fundamentals that
would gradually improve his playing strength
in the checkers game.
Three years later, John Edwards introduced
the teenager to other checkers players at a
local checker club, and here Bill met numerous
different gamers who had acquired an expert
or masters level within the checkers milieu.
One such checkerist was William Morgan, a talented
cross board checker game player. Morgan was
willing to take the precocious youngster under
his wing for several years.
Bill Edwards early checkers career certainly
gave evidence to the great tutelage of William
Morgan as one of Bill’s first major rewards
was to win the Glamorgan Open Championship
in 1934, at the age of just nineteen. This
feat was a tremendous achievement for the lad
because he did not score a single loss in any
game in a tournament, which had attracted some
of the top Welsh players of that period.
Unfortunately, Fate stepped into the mix a
few weeks later this impressive checker performance
as Bill Edwards was involved in a serious coal-mining
accident that crushed his left foot and necessitated
that he spend several months in the hospital.
This unexpected medical sojourn removed Bill
Edwards from the checker playing scene for
the next three years.
Undoubtedly, he spent time during his hiatus
continuing to develop and hone his game skills
in checkers until he finally decided that it
was time to get back into the checker circle,
and so he entered his first Welsh British Open
Checkers Championship, but had only a month
to prepare for the tournament. Still, the young
checkerist managed to win this prestigious
event ahead of such renowned checker masters
as Graham Davies, who was later to become the
British Open Champion, and Alf Huggins, who
was also later to win the British Open Championship
and become the World Correspondence Champion.
He also defeated Ivor Edwards, who was no relation
to Bill Edwards, and Ernie Rees, all of whom
were players of grandmaster strength.
Bill Edwards pursued the checkers game with
a passion and gained several major victories
in the mind sport, but then there was another
period of checker inactivity at the national
level when Bill joined the service and spent
six years in another kind of strategy game.
After his discharge, Edwards was back in the
checkers arena again. With little preparation
for the game, he entered the English Open Championship
in 1948. It was at this tourney that Bill met
and befriended the legendary checker grand-master,
Derek Oldbury.
Bill Edwards had maintained his checkerboard
techniques and did well in the tournament,
for it was only in the final match of the competition
that Bill Edwards was defeated by an extremely
strong cross board player, Percy Crabbe. However,
there were also unusual circumstances to be
considered at this point in the championship,
and Bill Edwards may have had a better chance
had the timekeeper not been incompetent. He
announced that Bill Edwards had to make eighteen
moves in the remaining two minutes when, in
reality, he had only to make two moves in the
time allotment! So, of course, this placed
a lot of unnecessary pressure upon the checker
champion and while attempting to play the required
number of moves in such a short time caused
Edwards to make an error in his checker game.
This blunder proved fatal for Bill as Crabbe
capitalized upon it and subsequently won the
match.
Between 1953 and 1955, Bill Edwards challenged
checker masters in their games, and succeeded
in winning three more Welsh Championships.
At this point, however, champion Bill Edwards
decided that it was time to permanently retire
from the checkers game and he withdrew from
the checker arena to get married.
After this time, champion Edwards spent time
raising a family and concentrating on other
interests. However, some sixteen years after
his last checker victory, Bill’s interest
in checkers was rekindled by his son, Lindus.
The following is a brief account of that
moment in time by Lindus:
During the winter of 1971, I discovered
some old documents in the attic, which revealed
the illustrious checker playing career of
my father, which, hitherto, he had only briefly
talked about. Intrigued by his past, I asked
whether his interest might be rekindled to
the extent of playing in another tournament,
at which point he seemed dubious. Within
a day or so, I bought a checkerboard and
pieces, as I was desirous of seeing how skillful
he was! To my astonishment, I was shown an
entirely different game to the one I knew
as a small child and wanted, quite naturally,
to learn more. Having a checkerboard and
pieces before him for the first time in sixteen
years must have served as the catalyst in
his comeback, for it was only a few days
later that my father and I visited Cardiff
YMCA ~ the scene of many Welsh Championships
~ in pursuit of meeting the players whose
skills had graced that wonderful Victorian
building.
After an hour's wait, two gentlemen in
their late eighties walked into the room.
My father strode up to them and extended
his hand as if the many years, which separated
their last meeting meant nothing. “Bill
Edwards!” exclaimed the older
of the two. “And
you are my old friends Steve James and Stan
Bassett,” replied my father.
I looked on stupefied and said, “Now
I see why checker players have to have such
great memories!”
It didn't take long for the checkers bug
to touch Bill Edwards’ heart and soul
again, and within a few months of that memorable
meeting with old friends in a very familiar
checkers environment, he began to study anew
checkers literature such as the Ryan/Wiswell
book, ‘World
Championship Checkers’, as well
as numerous others that contained as many of
the games of his idol, Marion Tinsley, as possible.
With the checkers spirit and desire strong
again, Bill Edwards decided to enter the
British Open Championship in North Wales
in May of 1971. As chance would have it,
another checker master from South Wales,
Graham Davies, was also making a comeback
to the checker arena after an almost equally
long period.
The tournament produced eleven grueling
checkers sessions and countless checker games.
After twenty-two games, Graham Davies emerged
the winner of the match with a score of fifteen
wins and no losses. This record was just
slightly ahead of Bill Edwards, who scored
twelve wins and no losses. This was indeed
a remarkable achievement for two ‘retired’ checker
masters in their comeback performance.
During the course of the next year, Bill
Edwards at the British Open studied and became
familiar with the new style of 3 Move Restriction
checkers and now armed with a solid knowledge
of the 3 Move play, Bill entered the Scottish
Open Championship in 1972. It was apparent
that despite all those years of checkers
inactivity, Edwards had not forgotten game
board strategies. Bill won the championship
match, taking first place ahead of checker
masters John McGill, Tom Watson, James Marshall,
and Jimmy Grant.
Bill Edwards had indeed made an amazing comeback
into the championship world of checkers,
and his golden years at the checkerboard
were between 1979 and 1987, which was a time
period wherein he won five consecutive English
Open Championships as well as several major
freestyle tournaments. His mind was keen,
his eyes were alert, and his fingers were
nimble as they moved the checker pieces from
one winning position to another. These results
certainly indicate that this checker champion
Bill Edwards could easily absorb new plays
and techniques in a style that he has never
played before and master them with a finesse
that led to checker success.
Bill Edwards Winner
of the 1987 Irish Open
Edwards also entered in the 1987 Irish Open
Checker Championship, and once again displayed
his checkers prowess by winning that tournament
as well.
In 1989, Bill Edwards played as a member
on the British checkers team in the 5th International
Match between the United States and Great
Britain. Bill’s record of successful
checkers games for the tournament was seven
wins out of the eleven that were scored by
the entire U.K. & Ireland team. These
checker game statistics truly indicate the
strength of skill that Bill Edwards had acquired
and the quality player he had developed into
during his checkers career. Only four wins
were scored by the other nine British team
members in a total of one hundred and eighty
games played in the tournament. In this competition,
champion Bill Edwards scored two draws with
master checkerist, Asa
Long, and defeated Paul Davies. This
period in Edwards’ checker career clearly
indicated his game was at a time when he
was almost at the peak of his ability.
In 1994, at the age of 79, Bill Edwards traveled
to Scotland to play in the Centenary Scottish
Open Championship, and once again, his checker
prowess succeeded in giving him another tournament
win. His success in this event actually persuaded
Bill to continue playing checkers in spite
of his declining health and in 1995, at the
tender age of eighty, he won the British
Open Championship without any game losses.
In this championship round of checkers, champion
Edwards defeated Pat McCarthy, Tom Watson,
and several other notable grandmasters.
1997 English Open Championship
In the winter of his life, champion Bill Edwards was
racking up win after win on the checkerboard, and
following his astonishing success in the British Open
tournament match, he decided to issue a challenge
for 3 Move championship title of the world.
In rapidly deteriorating health at the age
of eighty-one, Edwards journeyed unaccompanied
to Ireland in an ill advised attempt to capture
the checkers championship title from Ron ‘Suki’ King
of Barbados. Unfortunately, Bill Edwards
had been provided with an inadequately heated
room in a sub-standard hotel, in comparison
to the more luxurious comfort of a five-star
hotel across the road that Ron King enjoyed,
did nothing to enhance Bill’s chances
of winning the match; in fact, the stay took
an appalling toll on his health. Fortunately,
the kind manager of King’s hotel, seeing
Edwards’ deterioration in health, took
pity upon the octogenarian and insisted that
Bill stay at his hotel free of charge.
Checkers game champion Bill Edwards should
never have made the trip to Ireland, and
now his thoughts were more of returning home
as quickly as possible. As a result, the
checker master, who had won almost thirty
major championships throughout his great
checkers game career, not surprisingly played
the poorest checker games of his life.
At this point in his life, checkers was still
a dominant force for Bill Edwards, and still,
with only a short time to live because of
his chronically poor health and suffering
great pain, Bill attempted to win the Droitwich
Open. This open tournament was a twelve round
freestyle checker event that took place over
a weekend, but Bill Edwards was forced to
withdraw after only a few sessions; however,
not before winning his last game with a magnificent
touch so typical of his wonderful cross board
ability.
Bill Edwards did not survive long after that
checkers game tournament, but still lives
in the memories and hearts of those who knew
him well. Lindus writes further in his account
on his father:
As a player my father was blessed with
a phenomenal memory, often memorizing dozens
of games daily and retaining them for use
in tournaments years later! It was not by
memory alone however that he was able to
defeat the finest players of Great Britain
and Ireland over almost thirty years. His
cross board skills were of the highest order,
often visualizing twenty-five moves in the
most complicated positions. I tested this
ability on countless occasions, often presenting
him with the most convoluted positions imaginable.
The outcome was always the same.
After a couple of minutes he would say,
“Yes, I can see it now.
The piece on square twenty-seven will be lost
in twenty-four moves!”
As a person, checkers champion Bill Edwards
was liked instantly by all who met him. He
exuded a calm at the checkerboard such as
I have never seen and was a quality which
undoubtedly assisted him to win a unique
number of major tournaments. Moving a piece
on a checkerboard was something he did with
an elegant style and was sheer poetry in
motion to behold. Always modest in success
and congratulatory to the few who beat him,
Bill will be remembered not only as the greatest
Welsh player to date, but as a person with
a big heart who loved everyone.
William “Bill” Edwards died
peacefully at Prince Charles Hospital, Merthyr
Tydfil, South Wales, during the early hours of
Thursday the 23rd July 1998, aged eighty-four years.
Only hours before his passing, he asked me how the
British Open Championship was progressing, an
indisputable testimony to his deep love of checkers.
Pat McCarthy was to later write to me saying,
“Your father’s
play had a touch of genius about it.”
Coming from a player my father regarded as a phenomenal
cross board player, this was a fine eulogy indeed.
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