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Champions of the
20th Century
Don Morgan Lafferty
Edwin Hunt
Willie Ryan
Asa Long
Walter Hellman
William Edwards
Sam Levy
Sam Gonotsky
Dr. Marion Tinsley
Derek Oldbury
Elbert Lowder
Leo Levitt
Richard Hallett
African
Checker Champions
1st International Match
In Barbados
Checkers in The
West Indies
The International
Checkers Stage
“Men Only”
Checkers in The News
Checkers Pool
Checkers Champions
Of The Netherlands
Jannes van der Wal
Ton ‘Teunis’ Sijbrands
Checkers Champion
Harm Wiersma
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Checkers Champion Leo Levitt
1931-
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’s interest at an early age of eight when he played the game with his father. As the years passed, Leo 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 ability.
In 1948, at age 16, he had become a solid checker player and defeated the veteran checkerist, Lee Munger, of Indianapolis in the Indiana State tournament. The following year, Leo repeated this checker victory. Then, in 1950, at age 18 Levitt became the World Junior Champion at the historic Paxton, Illinois, National Tournament because he was the highest finisher under the age of 21. Leo played a tie round with Marion Tinsley in which he drew the weak side of the Edinburgh in an original, now classic, game.
In 1951, at the National Checkers 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, Leo also won the Ohio State Tournament. But then he took a hiatus from the checkers circuit. Although checkers held Leo’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, Leo also got married and became the proud father of a little daughter.
In 1959, he 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 game had not suffered the time off.
The next year, Leo accepted a position as a nuclear reactor physicist in California so he moved his family out west. Since 1960, Leo has been very successful in the checkers circuit there by winning the California State Championship eight times and becoming the California State checker champion.
Although Leo 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 game 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 Asa Long.
In the 1974 Philadelphia National 3-Move Checkers Tournament, Leo 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 crossboard play.
A National 11 Man Ballot checkers tournament was held in Philadelphia immediately following the National 3-Move tournament and Leo Levitt this competition as well. Levitt was matched against checker 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 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. Leo 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, 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 checker skills and well-defined techniques and Leo’s game is not over yet.
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CHECKERS CHEST
Two Player