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Checkers Game
Author Tim Hensley
The Future of Checkers Draughts.
There is a certain amount
of humor in Checkers Games.
The simplicity of the Go-As-You-Please child’s
game of checkers still remains popular, but all in
all, if you think that a good game of checkers is easy,
you haven't met the Ayshire Lassie, the Black Doctor,
the Goose Walk or even, the Canalejas Cannonball.
The following commentary by Virginia based author
Tim Hensley, offers a personal experience in the world
of checkers.
Checkers in America is a kind of Norman Rockwell icon,
a symbol of good natured competition and wholesome
amusement. Author Tim Hensley continues, because nearly
everyone knows how to play, checkers is often viewed
as a pastime for old men and children, on a par with
tick-tack-toe or Go Fish. Not so, says Virginia based
author Tim Hensley. He should know: his grandfather
is a Virginia state champion and one time national
champion.
Few people understand the game's actual depth, Tim
Hensley reports. Many players familiar with both games
assert that it takes longer to learn to play checkers
at the master level than it does chess. What checkers
lacks in breadth, it makes up in precision and finality.
...Master checker players spend years analyzing favorite
lines of play, developing "cooks" that
will throw a wrench in an opponent's position. The
novice learns that it is possible to lose a game of
checkers in just five moves — if you stumble
into the 350-year-old Canalejas Cannonball. Experts
study classic "strokes," or
long series of forced jumps, which include the Goose
Walk, Wyllie's Switcher Winder, the Boomerang and
Duffer's Delight.
This is not to say you have to be a genius to play
checkers. Just that there is a vast difference between
the "wood pusher" and
the master player. The rewards of the checkers game
for all are immeasurable: elegance, balance, beauty,
simplicity and, perhaps most important, the fraternity
of those who have tasted the mysteries of checkers.
When the author Tim Hensley congratulated his grandfather on
winning a recent tournament, he replied with boyish
delight, "Ah, we had
a barrel of fun."
Future checkers champions?
The Future of Checkers in the Adult Realm
The Joy and Challenge of Street Checkers
The beauty and simplicity of a checkers garden.
The Ultimate Checkers Parking Lot
or Is This a Game of Car Checkers?
How about a game?
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