Lubabalo Nicholas Kondlo (born December 21, 1971) [1] is a player of English draughts (also known as American checkers) from South Africa. He holds the title of grandmaster, and is the current world champion in the GAYP (go as you please) version.
Born in New Brigton, Port Elizabeth, Kondlo started to play draughts at the age of seven years. [2] In 2007, he won the World Qualifier in Las Vegas, United States and became the first draughts grandmaster from Africa. [2] [3]
His match against Ron King in 2008 for the world champion title in the GAYP version was the subject of the documentary King Me. [4] [5] In 2012 he won the silver medal, the gold being won by Alex Moiseyev, in American checkers at the SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing, China. [6] Kondlo won the 2014 World Qualifying 3-Move Tournament in Clarksville, Indiana, U.S. edging out Sergio Scarpetta on head-to-head tie-breaker. Thanks to this victory, he earned the right to challenge Michele Borghetti in the world championship match in the 3-move version. [7] The match took place in 2015 in Livorno, Italy and was won by Borghetti. [8] In 2018, in Petal, Mississippi, US Kondlo won the world title match in the GAYP version against defending champion Borghetti. [9] Kondlo is the first world draughts champion from Africa. [2] He lost the title on 30 April 2022 to Italian Matteo Bernini.
Although there have not been nearly enough international test matches between countries, Lubabalo has played in:
Year | Played | Country played | Result | Venue |
---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | Hugh Devlin | ![]() | lost | Old Edwardian Society, Lower Houghton, Johannesburg |
Marion Franklin Tinsley was an American mathematician and checkers player. He is considered to be the greatest checkers player who ever lived. Tinsley was world champion from 1955–1958 and from 1975–1991 and never lost a world championship match. He lost only seven games from 1950 until his death in 1995. He withdrew from championship play during the years 1958–1975, relinquishing the title during that time. Derek Oldbury, sometimes considered the second-best player of all time, thought that Tinsley was "to checkers what Leonardo da Vinci was to science, what Michelangelo was to art and what Beethoven was to music."
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".
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.
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Amangul Berdieva is an English draughts and international draughts player from Turkmenistan. She is twice women's world champion of English draughts in both 3-Move and GAYP versions.
Ion Dosca is a Moldovan Brazilian draughts player, international grandmaster since 1996 and world champion in 1999. Dosca also plays other variants of draughts, such as Russian checkers and pool checkers and won numerous national championships in both variants.
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Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is recognised by Act of Parliament as the national controlling body for mind sports in South Africa.
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.
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.
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John Ray Webster is an American competitive checkers player, veterinarian, farmer, retired military officer, and musician. A national checkers champion and grandmaster, Webster won the United States Blitz GAYP title at the American Checker Federation National Championship in 2011. He has won the North Carolina Checkers Championship eleven times and represented the United States, as a member of the United States International Checkers Team, in the World Checkers/Draughts Championship in England in 1989 and Las Vegas in 2005. In 2011 he represented the United States at the World Qualifier Checkers Tournament in Italy.
Joan Caws was a British English draughts player. Caws was a multiple-times English champion, a 1979 British champion and the first Women's World champion, having successfully defended the title in 1987 and 1989.