Alfred Jordan (born November 6, 1870, London, England; died May 8, 1926 [1] ) was an English draughts or checkers player originally from England who was WCDF champion from 1912 to 1917. [2] He also wrote works on checkers and collaborated with Edward Lasker in the preparation of "Chess and Checkers." [3] He remained an active player until nearly the end of his life as he competed in a tournament in Florida in 1925. [4]
Checkers, also known as draughts, is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers is developed from alquerque. The term "checkers" derives from the checkered board which the game is played on, whereas "draughts" derives from the verb "to draw" or "to move".
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Ding Liren, who defeated his opponent Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 World Chess Championship. Magnus Carlsen, the previous world champion, had declined to defend his title.
Sir George Alan Thomas, 7th Baronet was a British badminton, tennis and chess player. He was twice British chess champion and a 21-time All-England badminton champion. He also reached the quarterfinals of the singles and the semifinals of the men's tennis doubles at Wimbledon in 1911. Badminton's world men's team championships cup, equivalent to tennis' Davis Cup, is named Thomas Cup after him. Thomas lived most of his life in London and Godalming. He never married, so the hereditary Thomas baronetcy ended on his death.
Jonathan Herbert Schaeffer is a Canadian researcher and professor at the University of Alberta and the former Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence.
Edward Lasker was a German-American chess and Go player. He was awarded the title of International Master of chess by FIDE. Lasker was an engineer by profession, and an author of books on Go, chess and checkers. Born in Prussia, he emigrated to the United States in 1914. He was distantly related to World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker with whom he is sometimes confused.
Rashid Gibyatovich Nezhmetdinov was a Soviet chess player, chess writer, and checkers player. Although he never attained the title of Grandmaster, he was a renowned tactician and created several brilliant games. Biographer Alex Pishkin compares him to Chigorin, Réti and Spielmann.
Fred Reinfeld was an American writer on chess and many other subjects. He was also a strong chess master, often among the top ten American players from the early 1930s to the early 1940s, as well as a college chess instructor.
English draughts or checkers, also called straight checkers or simply draughts, is a form of the strategy board game checkers. It is played on an 8×8 checkerboard with 12 pieces per side. The pieces move and capture diagonally forward, until they reach the opposite end of the board, when they are crowned and can thereafter move and capture both backward and forward.
László Szabó was a Hungarian chess player. He was awarded the title of International Grandmaster in 1950, when it was instituted by FIDE.
Boris Markovich Verlinsky was a Soviet chess player, who was awarded the title International Master by FIDE, the world chess federation, in 1950. He was one of the top Soviet players in the 1920s, and was Soviet champion in 1929.
Arthur William Dake was an American chess player. He was born in Portland, Oregon and died in Reno, Nevada.
Abram Isaakovich Rabinovich was a Lithuanian–Russian chess player. He was champion of Moscow in 1926.
Stefan Fazekas was a Czechoslovak–British chess master.
Newell Williams Banks was an American checkers and chess player.
Solving chess consists of finding an optimal strategy for the game of chess; that is, one by which one of the players can always force a victory, or either can force a draw. It is also related to more generally solving chess-like games such as Capablanca chess and infinite chess. In a weaker sense, solving chess may refer to proving which one of the three possible outcomes is the result of two perfect players, without necessarily revealing the optimal strategy itself.
The World Checkers/Draughts Championship is the tournament of English draughts which determines the world champion. It is organised by the World Checkers/Draughts Federation. The first edition of the men's championship was held in the 1840s, predating the men's Draughts World Championship by several decades. The women's championship has been held since 1986. There are championships held in two versions. One is 3-Move, where players don't begin their game in the starting position but a position three moves in the game. The other is GAYP, where players start from the very beginning.
James Ferrie was a Scottish checkers or English draughts player of Irish descent. He was the World Checkers/Draughts Champion from 1894 to 1896 and again from 1903 to 1912. He first became champion by defeating James Wyllie in 1894. He is mentioned in the book One Jump Ahead: Computer Perfection at Checkers by Jonathan Schaeffer.
Robert Martins was a British draughts player who was World Checkers/Draughts Champion from 1859 to 1864. Although of English/Cornish origin, he spent much of his later life in Scotland. He was a noted rival of James Wyllie. Chambers's Journal physically described him as tall, pale-faced, and long-headed. While in personality they considered him courteous and cautious in expressing opinions on points of the game.
Elbert Lowder was an American checkers champion noted for dominating the "11-man ballot". He worked as a piano tuner and was from North Carolina. As one of the grandmasters who played against the Chinook program he is mentioned several times in Jonathan Schaeffer's book One Jump Ahead: Challenging Human Supremacy in Checkers. Elbert Lowder was a member of the United Methodist Church.
Michele Borghetti is an Italian grandmaster of international draughts, Italian draughts and English draughts. In English draughts he was world champion in both 3-move and GAYP variations.