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Checkers Champion
James Ferrie vs. Richard Jordan
(Richard Jordan won the world
checkers champion title in this match.)
James Ferrie (1857-1929)
was born in Greenock, Scotland to parents of
Irish extraction. In James Ferrie's early
years, he was apprenticed as a joiner with Messrs.
Caird & Co, which was then a well-known
firm of shipbuilders on the lower Clyde.
According to James Ferrie himself, his earliest
acquaintance with checkers games was somewhere
around his eighteenth year. Like many of his
fellow Scotsman, he quickly developed an interest
in the checkers game because it was a popular
mind sport that was played in many community
clubs, pubs, and social gatherings for entertainment
or for prize money.
Ferrie, like the checkers masters of his time,
spent a lot of time practicing and playing,
all the while studying moves and analyzing
checkers game strategies. By 1875, Ferrie
was the champion of checkers in the Greenock
Draughts Club. Champion James Ferrie then
won the Glasgow Central Draughts Club handicap
tournament, wherein he defeated many top players
in various matches.
However, despite his finesse in the checkers
game, James had a minor setback in 1883 in
a match with W. Campbell of Glasgow. Champion
Ferrie lost this match with no wins, one loss,
and seven draws. The defeat did not discourage
the checker master and in 1884 he met and defeated
Beattie of Liverpool, the brilliant editor
of the Liverpool
Mercury, with a score of two wins, one
loss, and three draws.
It was then that champion James Ferrie decided
to spend some time in London and was again
caught up in the checkers intrigue. Here he
played against and defeated all comers and
in fact, won the London Checkers Game Championship.
He held this checker title for eighteen months,
all the while beating everyone who played against
him.
During this phase, champion Ferrie played
and defeated G. Smith for a purse of £40.
He also trounced well-known American Champion,
J. P. Reed, in a short match, with champion
James Ferrie winning with four games, one loss,
and one draw. After his return to Greenock,
James Ferrie won the Renfrewshire Checkers
Game Cup, and then arranged to meet W. Campbell
in another match. This time Ferrie was more
successful in his games and won the match with
three wins, no losses, and one draw. Later,
in 1884, in the first International Scotland-England
match, champion James Ferrie also performed
very well with three wins, one loss, and thirteen
draws.
A few years later, Ferrie met William
Bryden of Glasgow in May 1891 for the checkers
championship of Scotland. James Ferrie won
the match with six wins, two losses, and nineteen
draws. He collected the purse of £100
as well.
At the time of this win, Ferrie was also Lanarkshire
checker Champion, a title he had acquired in
a strongly contested tournament. For this reason,
James very generously resigned his rights to
the Scottish title to promote the first Scottish
Draughts Championship Tournament of 1893. However,
champion James Ferrie suffered defeat in
this checkers game tournament at the hands
of Robert Stewart and afterwards seemed to
have second thoughts about relinquishing the
title so he issued a challenge to anyone in
Scotland for a match to reclaim the Scottish
checkers title with a purse of £50
for thirty games, but unfortunately, there
was no interest in this at all.
The greatest achievement in the checker career
of James Ferrie came in 1894 during a match
that took place in Glasgow when he claimed
the checkers game World Championship and a
purse of £200 by defeating James
Wyllie in a phenomenal match of ninety
games, wherein champion Ferrie won thirteen
games, lost six, and drew 69. Two years later,
Ferrie lost the checker championship title
in a match again held in Glasgow to the great
checker master, Richard Jordan, in a close
match 3-4-33. The photograph shown above was
taken at this match with Jordan sitting on
the left and Ferrie seated on the right.
After Greenock, Ferrie resided in Coatdyke
near Coatbridge for a short period, but spent
most of his life in Glasgow, as a businessman.
James Ferrie lived a long life for that era,
and at the ripe age of seventy was still playing
top class checkers games at the Second International
Match against the USA in 1927. Ferrie also
played top board for the Govanhill Liberals
Draughts Club, which also included checker
masters like W. Bryden, J. Moir, J. Seabright,
and T. Ballentyne.
James Ferrie spent his declining years at
203 Onslow Drive, Dennistoun, Glasgow and died
in his home on the December 17, 1929 aged 72.
He was buried without tombstone in St. Peters
cemetery in Dalbeth, Glasgow. The cemetery
overlooks the River Clyde and the community
in which checkers game champion James Ferrie
was born.
Ferrie also leaves behind a checker legacy. He played
in two checkers World Title matches, and was World
champion from 1894-1896, winning the title from the
great checker master and champion, James Wyllie. Although
Ferrie lost the title two years later to Richard Jordan in
1896, he was not easily vanquished nor defeated emotionally
and continued to play checkers against many formidable opponents.
James Ferrie played on the British Team against the U.S. in
the first Internal games in 1905 and also in the second IM games in 1927.
James Ferrie was without doubt a player of phenomenal
ability, a skill he continued to use to the very
highest standard until his death. He was considered
a retiring and unassuming man, reserved in manners,
but one who was a pleasant conversationalist
when engaged in social affairs. In play James
Ferrie appeared nervous, making his moves rapidly,
but seldom did his game suffer by this style
of play.
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