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Pool Checkers
Champion Barnett
Al Barnett
- Champion Al Barnett hails
from Eastpoint, Georgia.
- Pool Checkers
Champion Barnett, a dynamic Pool Checkers player
with the risk taking personality of a riverboat
gambler and the ‘go
with flow’ modern day attitude
of society.
- Al Barnett has combined his checkers
strengths and weaknesses into a winning
combination at the checkerboard that has
allowed him to become one of the all-time
great players in the Pool Checkers Champions
arena.
- Pool Checkers Champion Barnett has won
seven Pool Checkers National tournaments
hosted by the APCA and numerous 2nd and
3rd place finishes.
- 2005, Atlanta, Georgia
- 2003, Atlanta, Georgia
- 1999, Memphis, Tennessee
- 1998, Atlanta, Georgia
- 1997, Flint, Michigan
- 1996, Houston, Texas
- 1995, Augusta, Georgia (tied with Elton Williams)
- At the checkerboard, champion Barnett
exudes a tenacious spirit, and his checkers
game demonstrates an aggressive, bold,
and innovative style of play.
- His expertise and imaginative checkers techniques and tactics are readily displayed against his opponents and leaves little room for questions.
- Pool Checkers Champion Barnett's style
excels in both ‘medal’ play
and ‘match’ play;
in medal play he easily competes against
the checkers players in his division, whereas
in match play he can concentrate on a single
opponent across the checkerboard; the end
result is determined by how well he performed
overall in all his tournament games.
- Some have criticized Al Barnett's tournament
play in that though he succeeds in taking
first place, he has more losses than other
players, but what counts is still the final
total overall regardless of how many losses
against his checkers opponents he incurred.
- Perhaps pool checkers champion Barnett
is not a strong match player against individual
opponents, but then his choice of competition
is knowing his strength at the checkerboard
so he favors checkers tournaments over
single match or exhibition games and that
says a lot more for his game integrity
than the ‘critics’ behind
the scenes.
- However, Charles ‘Pecan’ Thompson
recalls numerous games they have played
where he was on the losing side of the
checkerboard, though there was one time
in a game the 1997 tournament in Flint,
Michigan when ‘Pecan’ quietly
led champion Barnett to slaughter as
he maneuvered him into a trap that "Pecan" had
studied intently.
- He had noticed that this game was a favorite
of Al Barnett’s, and had quietly
made the final moves in setting the trap,
and Al did make that certain move, so that
Pecan was able to ‘turn
the lights out’ on Barnett,
and according to "Pecan",
it was a win that did give him a lot of
satisfaction.
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