Our Prize Problem contest, sponsored by Brian Hinkle, has ended. No, we can't offer the Nobel Prize, but Brian did offer $25 to the first person to solve it. He later upped his offer to $50, then $75, and finally $100.

But no one submitted a correct solution so Brian got to keep his money.

For those of you truly puzzled by the problem (which must be just about everyone), don't feel bad. The two most powerful computer engines in the world, KingsRow and Cake, couldn't solve it either! Here's Brian's solution and brief notes.

3-7 10-15 7-10 20-24 21-17---A 24-27---B 11-7 2x11 10-6 1x10 22-18 15x31 17-14 10x17 25-22 17x26 5-1. White Wins.

A---Planning ahead for the fireworks.

B---16-20 25-21 24-27 11-7 2x11 30-25 23x30 32x7. White Wins.

White is down no less than six pieces, but still wins as Black will eventually run out of moves in this incredible block position. Marching the checkers on 11 and 4 down the main diagonal won't work as White will simply allow his piece on 29 to capture both of Black's approaching men. Try working through it on your own. You won't find a single variation in which Black doesn't eventually become completely blocked.

Block problems, along with fortress problems and "fugitive king" problems are notoriously difficult for computers to solve, and Grandmaster problemist Brian Hinkle has here created what may be the ultimate block problem of all time. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. In fact, if you'd like to see another Brian Hinkle classic, check out Bear Claw, published back in the early days of The Checker Maven.

Summer training camp wasn't Marvin J. Mavin's favorite thing. Not at all.

Every August, before the start of the National Checker League regular season, the championship team which Marvin captained, the Detroit Doublejumpers, held training camp at a classy resort near the appropriately named town of Au Train in Northern Michigan. Training camp was no joke to Head Coach Ronaldson. He put the ten players on the Doublejumper team through a rigorous program of study, competition, and even intense physical training, as the players had to be able to withstand the long hours that checker matches could occupy.

Marvin, after previous bad experiences, knew better than to arrive out of shape, lest he be made to run laps up and down the lake for what seemed like forever. He also knew better than to bring along a bad attitude ... or a craving for a cold beer. The Coach was very strict about things like that, even limiting the amount of coffee his players were allowed.

This year Marvin thought he was as ready as he could possibly be. He had spent a lot of time with his girlfriend Priscilla, and they had frequently jogged and worked out with weights in Priscilla's extensive home gym. He allowed himself just one beer after a workout and none at all during the rest of the day. And whenever he made a smart remark, Priscilla instantly scolded him.

It didn't work out the way Marvin had hoped and expected.

A couple of days after reporting for camp, Coach Ronaldson, at the daily morning team meeting, introduced a new person.

"I'd like you all to meet Betsy Batsy. I've recruited her and she's agreed to try out for the team."

"I'm going to be the Captain," Betsy interrupted in a deep voice. "I'm going straight to the top and you over there ..." pointing at Marvin " ... aren't going to stop me. I'm going roll right over you and ..."

"Thank you, Betsy, I'm sure we all appreciate your ambition," Coach Ronaldson said. "I met Betsy at a Checker Barrel restaurant. She was giving an impromptu exhibition at those tables they have outside and I watched her beat 50 players at once. There was even a AAA pro in the group. Now, although Betsy has never played professionally ..."

"I can beat any pro there is," Betsy blared. "You, him ..." (again pointing to Marvin) "... anyone."

"Well, I did play a few games with Betsy after her exhibition, and uh ..."

"I kicked you in the pants," Betsy said, guffawing.

"Well, yes, Betsy won every game, actually. So I thought someone this good, who by the rules could be recruited outside of the amateur draft, might be a real addition to our team."

"I can replace your whole team," Betsy stated. "Just me. I can play every board in every match and win the championship all by myself."

Although no one spoke up, the Doublejumper team, and Marvin in particular, were really wondering. Was this Betsy that good that the Coach, who was always strict, would put up with her attitude? It all seemed really strange.

"Come on boys," Betsy said, addressing the team, "or should I say girls?" That got a stern look from the three women on the Doublejumper team. Betsy noticed and said, "Sorry, girls, I should have said 'babies.'"

"Okay, team, set 'em up," the Coach said, "ten boards. First team and second team. Betsy is going to play a simul against all of you. Then you'll see she deserves a place on the team. Of course, that means one of you will get sent down to our AAA farm club, but that's how it goes."

"Him," Betsy said, pointing to Marvin. "He's the one you're going to send down.

"Uh, well, that's up to me ..." the Coach said.

"You want me to play for you, you do things my way," Betsy stated flatly.

But the boards were set out and play began. The Coach decided on single elimination. In the first round, Betsy defeated eight of the ten players, all of whom were eliminated. She drew with second board player Pete Butterworth and lost to Marvin on first board.

In the next round, second board was again a draw, meaning Pete was eliminated. But Marvin won again.

"Just you and me," Betsy said to Marvin, "mano a mano. Ha ha! You just won those games because I was playing more than one opponent. Now I crush you like the bug that you are. And the rest of you ... " Here Betsy looked around at the other team members. "The rest of you are off the team!"

"Wait a minute, now," Coach Ronaldson said. He was starting to wonder if he had made a big mistake. But he said no more, as the playoff between Marvin and Betsy had started.

The game reached the following position with Marvin to move.

"You're finished, little buggy boy," Betsy teased. "Squashed! Like a filthy roach!"

"That's it," said Coach Ronaldson. "Miss Batsy, I invited you here to try out for a place on the team. You're a great player but I won't put up with any more of your bad attitude. If you want to play professional checkers, you can go try out for one of the Rookie Leagues and see if they'll want to deal with you."

"Coach, let me finish this game, okay," Marvin said. "Then old Batsy here can go hitch a ride back to ... wherever she came from."

"As you wish," the Coach replied. "Finish your game."

Marvin made his move.

---

Betsy Batsy is a tough opponent, but Marvin seems pretty confident. Can you find a win here, or will Batsy Betsy bat you down to the minor leagues? See how you do and then click on Read More to see the solution and the conclusion of our story.

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It was mid-August, 1955, and in Bismarck, North Dakota on this Saturday afternoon the temperature exceeded 97 degrees. It was the kind of hot, dry prairie weather that led to rapid dehydration with the least amount of effort.

On a Saturday afternoon, Sal Westerman would have gone to the Beacon Cafe for a gathering of his Coffee and Cake Checker Club. But the club took a summer break between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Even so, Sal might have gone to the Beacon on his own, but Deana, the proprietess and baker, closed the cafe for a few weeks in August so she could visit her family over in Gackle, North Dakota.

To make things even worse, Sal's wife, Sylvia, had gone off to Dickinson, North Dakota, to visit with her sister, who lived alone and enjoyed the company.

But that left Sal with no company of his own and his favorite weekend spot unavailable. To top it all off, it was almost unbearably hot in the living room of his modest house. Even the basement wasn't a lot cooler, and there was no air circulation to speak of down there.

Sal tried reading a couple of checker magazines, but they stuck to his hands when he picked them up, and it just wasn't much fun.

What to do?

Maybe he could call one of the boys and they could go to one of those places with that new-fangled air conditioning. But Wayne would out in Wilton working on the farm, getting ready for the wheat harvest. Dan, Delmer and Mike, as far as he knew, would be out fishing or camping. They never missed a summer weekend, no matter how hot or how stormy the weather.

Kevin? Ron? Sal telephoned both of them, with no answer. Probably off on vacation. Louie? He'd be off somewhere with his latest girlfriend.

Well, Sal would just have to go by himself. He wasn't going to stay home, and a cold beer in a cool lounge sounded really good. He'd go over to the Patterson Hotel. It would be too hot up in the TipTop Lounge, but the Rainbow Bar and Lounge would be cool. He'd have a burger and a beer, and his latest issue of All Checker Digest wouldn't be so sticky in the air conditioning.

Sal put on his cap and walked on over. The walk alone was almost too much for him, and he was even hotter when he arrived.

Despite having air conditioning, the bar was nearly empty. The barkeep, a fellow named Jimmy Wilson, greeted Sal. "Nice to see you, Sal," he said. "Really slow today. Guess everyone's off on vacation or something."

Sal took a seat at a table at the side and put in his order. Jimmy brought over his beer right away and noticed Sal's magazine. "Hey, Sal, nothing much doing right now. Want to play a game or two? Just for fun, no stakes."

Jimmy was known to be a pretty good player. He often put as much as five or ten dollars on a game. That was a whole week's wages for him, but he won much more often than he lost. However, he knew Sal wasn't a gambler.

"Sure Jimmy, why not, but then after, say, best two out of three, I'll want my lunch, okay?"

"You got it Sal. Hey ... how about this ... lunch on me if you win and leave me a real good tip if I win."

Sal thought for a moment. Well, it wasn't exactly gambling ... "Okay, Jimmy, why not, but I would have left you a nice tip anyhow."

"Yeah, I know, I know, just trying to put a little fun into it."

Play began while Sal sipped his beer. Jimmy won the first game but Sal came back to win the second.

"The money round," Jimmy said as they set up the pieces for the third game. "Uh ... I mean, you know, sorta."

It turned out to be a really good game, and finally came down to the following position, with Sal to move.

Sal thought for quite a while, so long, in fact, that Jimmy went and tended to another customer. On his return, Sal said, "Jimmy, I think you're going to be buying me my lunch."

---

A juicy burger and a cold beer on a hot summer day, with someone else treating... does that sound good to you? If you were Sal, do you think you could win the deciding game? See if you can come up with a really "cool" winning move, and then coolly click on Read More to see the solution.

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On one of those hot, hot summer days in the Northern Hemisphere, the best thing to do is relax and cool off, as the young lady in the photo is enjoying doing. There are days when we just don't want to be bothered with any amount of effort or exertion.

Even we have to admit that on hot summer days, our attention can be drawn away from checkers. So today we've got an easy problem sent to us by regular contributors Lloyd and Josh Gordon of Toronto. It's one of those settings for which you'll either see the solution immediately, or you'll go astray at the outset.

Experienced players will make short work of this, and the rest of us will get it with a little thought. Keep your cool, see how quickly you can solve it and then click on Read More to check your line of play.

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Brian Hinkle's Prize Problem has remained unsolved and now Brian has increased the prize to $100 as of 00:01 HST, August 1, 2021. The final deadline for the receipt of a correct solution is 00:01 HST, August 27, 2021. There will be no further prize increases and the solution and name of the winner (if any) will be published in The Checker Maven on August 28.

The problem has resisted the efforts of top players and strong computer programs. Brian has even asked to have a computer search done to an unprecedented level of a trillion positions.

But it can be solved. Will you be the one to do it?

Terms and conditions apply; see the Prize Problem article, linked above, for full details. Void where prohibited by law.

Every year since he started grade school, Tommy Wagner had gone to two weeks of summer camp at fabled Camp Fortress in northern Florida. He always had a lot of fun, what with swimming, nature walks, sports competitions, and the many other things the camp had to offer. The food was good, too, and there was plenty of it.

But this year was different. In the camp's talent competition last year, Tommy had put on a simultaneous checker exhibition, playing sixteen other campers at a time and almost always winning. So this year, instead of attending as a camper, Tommy had been invited to come for the whole eight week summer session as a staff member, with pay plus room and board. He was to be the checkers instructor.

Tommy bid farewell for the summer to his mentor, Uncle Ben, and took up residence at the camp. It was great. Four times a day, six days a week, he gave one-hour checker lessons to a variety of age groups. The rest of his time was his own and he made the most of it.

Campers came for two weeks at a time, with the eight week session divided into four periods. Everything went great for Tommy until the third session.

Tommy's older students, ages 14-17, had the 3 to 5 PM lesson slot. When 3 o'clock rolled around on the first Monday of the third session, Tommy got a real shock as he watched Tina Tooner enter the open air tent where lessons were held.

"You," Tina gasped.

"You!," Tommy gasped in return.

Tina and Tommy were once very good friends, but then Tina caught Tommy at the movies with another girl, Letitia Wong, and it was all over. Even though they were in the same school, and on the same checker team, they had barely exchanged more than a few words since their falling out.

"Uh ... you're the teacher?" Tina asked.

"Yeah, I ... right. I didn't know you go to this camp."

"I wanted to try it out. The brochure mentioned checker lessons from a qualified instructor. I'm calling my parents. We need to get our money back and I need to go home. There's no way I'm staying at a camp where you are, Tommy Wagner!"

"Hey, wait a minute Tina, that's not fair."

"What isn't fair was you going out with another girl!"

Other campers were starting to arrive, and they were watching Tommy and Tina with great interest.

"Aw gee, Tina, let's not make a scene, okay? I have a class to teach."

"That's funny, Tommy Wagner. No, it's not even funny. It's pathetic."

The full compliment of campers was now on hand and they were laughing and pointing fingers.

"Tell you what, Mr. Cheater. I'll play you for the right to be teacher. How about it, will you take me on or are you just a Cheating Chicken?"

"Hey, look, Camp Fortress hired me for the summer. This is my job."

"You going to play me or are you going to wimp out in front of your class? I'm sure they would really respect you a lot if you can't even take on a little girl like me."

Tommy didn't reply. It was a no-win situation. Silently he sat down at one of the checkerboards arranged on a long folding table and motioned Tina into the opposite seat.

The campers gathered around. This was going to be even better than a fistfight.

Tommy had White and the game reached the position shown below. Tommy had just played 11-7.

Tommy looked over at Tina and, without realizing it, smiled. But Tina didn't miss it.

"What are you smiling about, Mr. Bad Ex-Boyfriend? Trying to be friends again? Well forget it. And forget this game. It's a draw. You didn't win. Get over it and play me again."

"Sure," Tommy said, "but how about we wait until you make your move? I've already made mine." But then, seeing the look on Tina's face and realizing the double meaning of what he had just said, Tommy turned away, embarrassed.

---

What is Tommy up to? If you were Tina, what would you play? How do you think it's going to turn out? Think about it, work out a line of play, "make your move" and then click on Read More to see the solution and the rest of our story.

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We're sure many readers of The Checker Maven will understand the context of the cartoon above. It's a bit of American history, in which a powerful man found himself pushed into a corner with no way out.

We continue our ongoing Checker School series, currently featuring problems and situations taken from Checker Board Strategy, a most unusual and entertaining book by Andrew J. Banks. Here is a "gem" problem composed by famous problemist S. J. Pickering and originally published in Elam's Checker Board.

The title of today's column gives a huge hint and we suggest you take full advantage. Don't get cornered; work out the problem and click on any corner (or even the middle) of Read More to see the solution and notes.

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Problem composing contest #57 is now live at contests.checkermaven.com!

Sponsored and produced, as always, by the seemingly tireless Bill Salot, this latest composing contest features three new and challenging positions.

Be an active participant by enjoying the problems and then voting for the one you deem best. Both Bill and the problem composers will appreciate your input, but above all you'll get to experience compositions by some of the very best contemporary checker problemists. What more can you ask?

You can also participate in the International Voters' Ladder by attempting to identify the problem that will garner the most votes. Details are on the contest page.

And now, as an introduction to Contest 57, here is a previous contest winner by Leo Springer, called Dutch Treat, which illustrates the new contest's theme of six star moves followed by a sextuple jump.

Click on Read More to see the solution and then go on to enjoy the new contest.

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Marvin J. Mavin, superstar Captain of the Detroit Doublejumpers in the National Checker League, was on summer vacation, that precious period of time between the World Series of Checkers in June and the start of training camp in August.

Each July he and Priscilla Snelson, his long-time girlfriend, took a week of vacation together. Priscilla was a C-level executive at Rust Belt Holdings and it wasn't easy for her to get time way, but she left her cell phone at home and treasured the undisturbed days spent in pure leisure.

This year she and Marvin went to Orlando, Florida, to make the rounds of the theme parks. They both tried their best to stay incognito and avoid attracting attention.

One of the parks they both had wanted to visit was Wacky World, a place noted for its strange and imaginative take-offs on everything from pop culture to Wall Street. And wouldn't you know--- checkers as well.

Priscilla was the first to spot it. "Look, Marvin," she said, "over there. There's a booth marked Checker Chuckles."

"Checker Chuckles? Really? Let's go see!"

It was a fairly small booth, not even a full-fledged exhibit. There were a couple of checkerboards on the counter, and sitting in the booth was an elderly fellow wearing a striped suit and bow tie. He had on a name tag that simply said, "Walt."

Spotting the approaching couple, Walt spieled, "Step right up. Play a game for a dollar. Winner takes all. One small dollar, maybe you'll win a prize!"

Indeed, sitting on a shelf in back of Walt was a collection of the largest Teddy Bears you could imagine.

"Oh, Marvin, win me a bear would you?" Priscilla said.

"Hey honey, never seen this side of you before! Didn't know you liked girls' toys!"

"I have my youthful moments, you know. Life isn't all mega-mergers and billion dollar contracts."

"I don't know, Prissy. Doesn't seem fair, me bein' ..."

"Afraid, son?" Walt interrupted. "The rules are easy. You pay a dollar. If you win, we play again. If you win three in a row, you get a Teddy Bear for the beautiful lady."

"What about draws?" Marvin asked.

"Wise guy, are you?" Walt's expression changed. "Nope, three wins in a row, them's the rules."

"But you could just play a drawing line ..."

"Oh, think you know all about the Grand Old Game, do you? Well, here's a different offer then, Mr. Ace Checker Player. You solve just one little checker problem, where White has 9 pieces and Black only has 6. White has to win. Anyone could do it, right, even you!" Walt snickered. "Yeah, even you!"

Marvin saw Priscilla's pleading look, but knew it would turn into something a bit difficult for him to handle if she didn't get her Teddy Bear. "Okay, there Walt," he said, "set 'em up."

Walt started arranging checkers on one of the boards. "I'm so generous, I'll even give you a hint," he said, "as you could probably use one. Now listen up. Remember that this is the Checker Chuckle booth at Wacky World. Here you go. I'll give you ten minutes. Now where's your dollar?"

Marvin forked over a dollar as Walt finished his set-up. Marvin faced the following position.

"You're right, Walt, old boy, that sure is a wacky position. But I don't get the chuckle part. Oh ... wait ... hmmm."

Marvin twisted his dreadlocks and leaned his elbows on the counter. "Now if I ... no ... how about ..."

Walt chuckled.

---

Can you figure out this definitely wacky position? You won't win a Teddy Bear but you might get a couple of chuckles. Still, don't laugh it off; give it a try and then click on Read More to see the solution and the rest of our story.

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July 4, 2021 will be the day after the date of publication of this column. It's a brighter and more hopeful 4th of July than it was last year, when we were in the midst of the worst pandemic in a hundred years. But America is recovering, as it always has, and the future is looking better all the time.

At The Checker Maven we remain and always shall remain unabashed and unapologetic patriots. We believe in America and we believe in the American people. We're proud to celebrate the 4th of July, America's birthday.

Every year we turn to Tom Wiswell, himself a true patriot who served America in so many ways. Mr. Wiswell was famous not only for his great playing skill and masterful problem compositions; he also produced many wise and pithy quotes. We especially like this one: "Hard work makes playing easy." We think it's typically American.

And now here's today's problem.

White is a piece up but is bound to lose a man. Can you notch the full point by finding a win and avoiding what looks to be an inevitable draw? "Hard work makes play easy" --- this one will be a bit of work, but you can make it look easy. When you've found your solution, click on Read More to independently verify your work.

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