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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 Jannes van der Wal
Page 2
1983
Checkers Champion Volmac Achtkamp |
Jannes with Joop den Uyl “In de Rooie Haan” World Checkers Championship Radio Program |
Checkers Champion Volmac Achtkamp on radio. |
After his World title checkers win, Jannes appeared on TV and in the radio program “In de Rooie Haan” as part of his promotion. Then Jannes played in the Volmac tournament and later defended his World Championship Title but was defeated by Harm Wiersma, who became the World Champion of 1983.
Harm Wiersma, World Champion & Jannes van der Wal, 2nd place
Checkers Champion
Jannes van der Wal Netherlands Championship Schagen,
1983
(11th) |
Checkers Champion
Jannes van der Wal
Flevohof Biddinghuizen
Simultaneous Play
1984 |
Jannes van der Wal at Interland Team Netherlands
Russia
1984 |
Netherlands National Checkers Championship, Abcoude 1985
Checker Champion Jannes vs Wim van der Kooij |
Checker Champion Jannes concentrating on a move. |
Checker Champion Jannes taking a music break from the checkerboard. |
Jannes won the Championship tournament for the third time during his checkers career.
Checkers Champion
Jannes van der Wal Groningen 1986 |
Checkers Champion
Jannes van der Wal enroute to Groningen National Checkers Championship 1987 |
1987
National Checkers Champion
Jannes van der Wal |
1987 Simultaneous Play World Record 92% Win against 225 opponents. |
Checker Champion
Den Helder
vs
Arjan van Leeuwen
1994
Nijmegen Championship |
Dutch Checkers Champion Jannes van der Wal
Nijmegen
1990 |
Checkers Champion Jannes van der Wal World Cup CheckersDen Haag |
Jannes only captured the dream of World Champion once during his checkers career; however, he did become National Champion four times, as well as club champion at the checkerboard. His record also included two 2nd place and one 3rd place in the Dutch championships and a couple of lesser rankings of 8th in 1978 and 11th in 1983. The latter may have been the result of losing the World Championship title that same year to Harm Wiersma.
The Two Sides of Jannes van der Wal
The Frisian checkers Grandmaster readily displayed a dichotomy within his youthful personality. There were definitely two sides to this champion of the checkerboard. On one hand, game opponents and spectators saw a sharp mind and intense spirit, who often appeared to be focused on his own way, living quietly in a world of his own making. Indeed, there were some who found him ‘odd’, ‘eccentric’ and even ‘not normal’; however, there were others who thought the young champion to be a genius and therefore, he was granted some freedom towards an eccentric nature.
By the age of twenty, van der Wal knew that his iron determination would lead him towards becoming World Champion in the checkers arena. His drive to win was rooted so deep within that he became absorbed in developing creative systems of checkers play that would often leave his opponents far behind. Across the checkerboard his opponents often became the victims of his strong, offensive play. His intensity would be shown by sweat on the brow as he concentrated on his strategies and techniques at the checkerboard, motivated towards the ultimate win, not just of a game or two, but the championship win of the coveted World title in checkers.
There were other times when the checkers world saw a completely different side to Jannes van der Wal. After his World Championship win in Brazil in 1982, Jannes became a TV personality. As he had turned to the checkers arena professionally, he didn’t make a lot of money playing the mind sport, so he turned his attention to any program that would pay to have him appear on the show and discuss himself, his goals, checkers and anything else in between.
No longer did the audience see a thoughtful, serious and focused Grandmaster in checkers, but a comedian. Here, Jannes would become a different person altogether. In an interview session, he would sometimes sit and say nothing for a minute or two after a question had been asked, like ‘How old are you?’ so that there would be nothing but silence and dead air. As the pregnant pause ended because the interviewer would lose patience and make another comment, van der Wal would simply smile and then make a joke with regards to the question. Once, he was even asked if checkers had turned him crazy. His rebuttle, which became a well known quote with time, was that ‘a dammer or checker player not talk much’ and he cited an example that if he went into to a bakery for some bread, he would say ‘one bread’. In other words, checkerists saved their mental powers for the checkerboard, for analyses, strategies and tactical moves so that this energy could be saved for the ultimate defeat of the opponent.
His eccentricity would show through at the best of times, even when he told of the times when he took the train to the checkers championship in Utrecht and he would fall asleep and miss his stop or be completely absent minded about it, that he would end up being driven back and forth between Groningen and Zwolle.
On the numerous shows that the checkers master participated in, he was always willing to clown around and act outlandish, with a real sense of showmanship and this was probably what brought so many requests for him to appear on a variety of different shows. |
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