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Champion Derek Oldbury
World Championship Match
Checkers champion Derek Oldbury lived an
amazing life from 1924 to 1994.
Throughout history there are countless
amazing stories about unique personalities
and their achievements, but none exist quite
like the tale of the great British draughts
master, Derek Oldbury. His story was indeed
quite remarkable.
Crippled at birth, born as a paraplegic,
baby Derek was not expected to live very
long ~ a few weeks at most; however, a greater
force had other plans and Oldbury must also
have been born with an extra strong will
to live because he did survive his unfortunate
beginning, and although he would spend his
lifetime in a wheelchair, this did not deter
him from achieving his goals. Derek Oldbury
accepted his physical limitations and concentrated
instead on his mental endeavors, such as
the great game of checkers.
His early years were plagued with many
difficulties, other than those he suffered
in adapting to his own physical handicap.
For many years Derek Oldbury fought against
social prejudices, but as his birth had shown,
Derek possessed a tenacity and will that
would outlast these negative views and would
indeed even fuel a fire to succeed. He would
not become a social outcast and devoted many
years to the study of the checkerboard. His
time was spent analyzing checker plays, developing
strategies, and learning how to manipulate
the game pieces to his advantage.
Finally, his years of game study paid off.
In 1950, at the age of 26, he entered the
Scottish Open and defeated his opponents
to successfully win his first major checkers
game tournament. However, this win did not
change his game perspective. Derek Oldbury
continued to practice and study his game,
likely playing against local competitors.
Then in 1953, Derek entered the English Tournament
Championship and astounded the checkers world
with a significant win that included a massive
score of seventeen wins, six draws and no
losses!
Two years later, Derek Oldbury neatly defeated
Sam Cohen in the English Match play Championship
and took the title from the great London
checkers master. Checkers game champion Derek
Oldbury followed this achievement by winning
the British Matchplay Championship and taking
the title from the four times winner, James
Marshall.
Over the years, the British draughts champion
from Devon became known to some by the nickname
of ‘DEO’, and people were intrigued
by his personality and his inner tenacity.
From 1956 to 1957, DEO displayed his talents
as the Draughts/checkers editor for the Rotherham
Advertiser, wherein he would contribute weekly
columns about checkers games. These were
later left to Richard Pask in the form of
an old exercise book and have been rekindled
by Pask on a website for other checkers enthusiasts
to enjoy.
Champion Derek Oldbury enjoyed every level
of a checkers game, but was indeed fascinated
by the GAYP or Go-As-You-Please style
of play. He was not merely content with the
championship matches in Great Britain but
became a formidable force in the world arena
of checkers GAYP play. In 1976, champion
Derek Oldbury competed against Leo Levitt
in the GAYP World Championship Match, and
tied his opponent with a score of one win,
one loss, and twenty-two draws, but Oldbury
retained the title.
Champion checkers player Derek Oldbury also
journeyed to Sanford, North Carolina, in
1976 for the U.S. 3 Move National Checkers
Tournament that attracted 114 checkers players,
of three levels including Masters, Majors,
and Minors. The following article featured
in the July 17th, 1976, edition of the Sanford
Herald shows champion Derek Oldbury deep
in thought during his game against Ed Scheidt.
Champion Derek Oldbury won the U.S. National
Tournament at the end of the 8th round and
was declared the winner of the Masters Division
and eligible for the $1000 cash award for first
place.
Three years later, champion Derek Oldbury
faced Elbert Lowder in the World Championship
Match of the GAYP style of checkers and won
the title again with a resounding score of
seven wins, two losses, and ten draws.
During his illustrious checkers game career,
Derek Oldbury had also played against Grandmaster,
Don Lafferty, where the two checkers greats
had tangled many times across the board.
This included their World's Championship
Match for the GAYP title in 1982, which
was won by Don Lafferty with a close score
of one win, no losses, and nineteen draws.
Derek Oldbury never tired of the world
of checkers and played two stake matches
against Richard
Hallett. The first was in 1985 where
the two opposing Masters challenged each
other in a 20-game 3 Move match that ended
in a draw with two wins, two losses, and
sixteen draws each. Then, the following year,
Derek and Richard played a 20-game 11-man
ballot match, which ended with a close score
of four wins, three losses, and thirteen
draws for Hallett.
In his sixties, champion Derek Oldbury decided
to purchase a computer. This was not simply
a tool to practice his checkers game against,
but with time, he learned to program it as
well and actually wrote his own checkers
program. This was not unusual for Oldbury
because he never thought he was ‘too
old’ or indeed, ‘too
anything’, to do exactly what
he wanted, and this trait certainly made
champion Derek Oldbury a unique individual.
In 1991, at the age of 67, champion Oldbury
played against the American Grandmaster,
Richard Hallett, again but this time for
the World 3-Move Checkers Championship title.
The match was held at Weston Super-Mare,
England, in October. Derek easily displayed
that though aging, he had not lost his checkers
touch nor techniques, and won the match with
a score of seven wins, four losses, and twenty-seven
draws. As a result of this win, champion
Derek Oldbury remained the World Champion
in the 3-Move style.
Checkers enthusiasts readily found Oldbury’s
style of play to be exciting. He was definitely
seen as a tactical fighter like Kasparov,
trying to win every game. Although some experts
considered his games perhaps as objectively ‘less
perfect’ than other Grandmasters’,
they were certainly entertaining for the
spectators.
Oldbury played his last GAYP World Championship
Match against world champion Ron King in
1992. The match ended in a tie between the
two master checkers players with a score
of five wins, five losses, and fourteen wins
each, but as King was the defending champion
in this style of play, he still retained
his title.
Only ten players competed for the GAYP World
Title since 1976 and Derek Oldbury’s
record stands as second to that of Ron King.
In four matches, Oldbury played a total
of ninety-one games, wherein his score was
comprised of thirteen wins, nine losses,
and sixty-nine draws.
During his checkers career, Derek E. Oldbury
challenged opponents in international matches,
while at the same time retaining the championship
title to the British Matchplay Championship
tournaments for nearly four decades until
1993, when he decided to retire undefeated
due to failing health.
Throughout his checkers career, Oldbury was
not merely content to simply play the checkers
game, but used his game expertise as a prolific
writer. He authored various magazines and
several books, including his six-volume masterpiece
entitled,
“The
Complete Encyclopedia of Draughts”.
His other notable written work entitled,
“Move
Over or How to Win at Draughts”,
was
published in 1957, and is still considered
by checkers experts and Grandmasters to be
one of the landmarks in the literature of
checkers and draughts. In the beginning,
this book was controversially received by
the public, and with time, its merits have
been discussed and disputed, with Derek Oldbury's
space force time system equally applauded
and championed, while at the same time, derided
and questioned.
Although many years have passed since this
remarkable checkers resource was first published
and numerous developments have occurred within
the checkers game, this material and Derek’s
commentary is still relevant in today’s
checkers world.
The following is an excerpt taken from the
introduction of the book and it clearly demonstrates
the wonderful personality of Derek E. Oldbury.
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