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 former 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 | Ireland | lost | Old Edwardian Society, Lower Houghton, Johannesburg |
Marion Franklin Tinsley was an American mathematician and checkers player. He is widely considered to be the greatest checkers player ever. 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."
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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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