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Leo Levitt
Checkers Game Champion
Champion Leo Levitt, from 1931 to present day.
American checkers player, Leo Levitt, was
born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November
4, 1931. He spent his early years living
in various places between Florida, Arizona,
Indiana, and Ohio.
The game of checkers attracted Leo Levitt’s
interest at an early age of eight when he
played the checkers game with his father.
As the years passed, Levitt continued
to develop his skills and techniques at the
checkerboard and then at thirteen, he entered
his first tournament in Tucson, Arizona,
to gain experience in a real competitive
setting and to test his checkers game ability.
In 1948, at age 16, Leo Levitt had become
a solid checker player and defeated the veteran
checkerist, Lee Munger, of Indianapolis in
the Indiana State tournament. The following
year, Levitt repeated this checker victory.
Then, in 1950, at age 18 Levitt became the
World Junior Champion at the historic Paxton,
Illinois, National Checkers Game Tournament
because he was the highest finisher under
the age of 21. Leo Levitt played a tie round
with Marion
Tinsley in which he drew the weak side
of the Edinburgh in an original, now classic,
checkers game.
In 1951, at the National Checkers Game Tournament
held in Lakeside, Ohio, Levitt finished second
behind the great master, Marion Tinsley,
whose score was one win, no losses and thirteen
draws. The close result certainly indicated
the level of checker play that Leo Levitt
had already achieved by a fairly young age.
This same year, Levitt also won the Ohio
State Tournament. But then he took a hiatus
from the checkers circuit. Although checkers
held Leo Levitt’s interest, he took
time off for studies and graduated with a
Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Science
in physics while he resided in Ohio. During
this time, Levitt also got married and
became the proud father of a little daughter.
In 1959, Leo Levitt was back on the checkers
scene and once again he won the Ohio State
Tournament, so although he had been away
from the competitive checker-board for about
eight years, it would appear that his checkers
game had not suffered the time off.
The next year, Leo Levitt accepted a position
as a nuclear reactor physicist in California
so he moved his family out west. Since 1960,
Leo Levitt has been very successful in the
checkers game circuit there by winning the
California State Championship eight times
and becoming the California State checker
game champion.
Although champion Leo Levitt has not won
a National 3-Move Tournament in checkers,
he has still maintained an impressive record
and become a consistent high finisher in
the checkers games since 1950. His best performances
were in 1974 when he ranked 3rd behind Marion
Tinsley and Derek Oldbury in
one of the strongest checkers fields ever
to be played, and then again in 1980, where
he placed second behind champion Asa
Long.
In the 1974 Philadelphia National 3-Move
Checkers Tournament, champion Leo Levitt
defeated former World Champion, Asa Long,
in a five and a half hour class match consisting
of 132 moves. Some checkers sources believe
that this match depicted one of the finest
wins ever scored in competitive cross board
play.
A National 11 Man Ballot checkers game tournament
was held in Philadelphia immediately following
the National 3-Move tournament and champion
Leo Levitt was at this competition as well.
Levitt was matched against checkers game
champion, Asa Long, yet again and defeated
Asa in one round, but in a later round unfortunately
lost to him. The result was that Leo finishing
2 points behind Asa Long, thus placing second
in the tournament match.
In the GAYP checkers arena, Levitt played
a match against Derek Oldbury in 1976. This
checkers game tournament competition was
for the GAYP World Championship title in
Glasgow, Kentucky. The match ended in a tie
with each opponent scoring one win, one loss,
and twenty-two draws.
Within checkers circles, Leo Levitt certainly
holds an impressive record acquired during
his game play as part of the U.S. checkers
team in the various International Championship
Matches between the U.S. and Great Britain.
Champion Leo Levitt compiled a record of
twenty-seven wins and thirty-one draws with
no losses in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th International
Matches. Unfortunately, Levitt had been away
from the checkers game for about five years
when the 6th International Match took place
and was not quite on his game. During the
match he scored five wins, one loss, and
fourteen draws. However, Leo Levitt’s
overall score in International Match play
is one of the best records to date with a
grand total of thirty-two wins, one loss,
and forty-five draws. This score is still
a tribute to a master player with solid checkers
game skills and well-defined techniques and
champion Leo Levitt’s
checkers game is not over yet.
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