Once before, we thought we had run out of plays on the word "stroke" but the Checker Maven staff managed to come through. This week, they've done it again, although warning that it would probably be the last acceptable instance of "stroke" wordplay.

We're not at all sure that we would cover our office walls with the color selected by the woman in the photo above, but you get the idea, and for all we know, she might be an expert checker player in addition to modeling brush strokes.

Today's stroke problem is indeed no brush-over; it's complex and requires the best in visualization skills.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:WK2,6,K10,11,15,K18,19,20,21,31:B1,3,4,12,13,23,K24,25,27,K29.

Don't paint yourself into a corner, and after a good brush with this problem, click on Read More to see the solution.

The beautiful old drawbridge shown above is at the entrance to the walled Dutch town of Heusden, which lies on the Maas River. We think it's a fitting illustration for today's Checker School lesson, which is about the classic "Petterson's Drawbridge" position.

We always ask when we present material on a well-known position: How well do you really know it? We're certain that our more advanced readers know it pretty well, but a thorough review never hurts; and for everyone else, this is a great opportunity to master this very difficult end-game formation. Here are two examples for you to try out. You might wish to attempt the second one first.

R.D. PETTERSON	J. BRADLEY
BLACK	BLACK
WHITE	WHITE
White to Play and Draw	White to Play and Draw
W:W9,20,21,30:B1,3,14,19.	W:WK2,10,20,21:B1,3,K18,K19.

When you've crossed this bridge, or more correctly, these bridges, cross your mouse over to Read More to see the solutions, four sample games, and detailed study notes. If you go over all of this material carefully, you'll be a drawbridge expert (of the checker variety, at least) and your cross-board results will definitely improve.

Given the title of today's column, we'll guess that you were expecting to see a picture of a powerful rocket blasting off from its launching pad. Instead, what you see above is an ingenious device called the Reed Rocket Nutcracker. We suppose that when you have "a tough nut to crack" this device will provide all the cracking power you'll ever need. But for cracking less resistant nuts, perhaps an old-fashioned low-tech nutcracker might do the job without the set-up time the "rocket" appears to require.

Old-time checkerist C. F. Barker was certainly a tough nut to crack, but in Willie Ryan's Tricks Traps & Shots of the Checkerboard, Willie describes just how James Reed did exactly that.

"Here is how James P. Reed, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, put the skids under Boston's renowned Charles Francis Barker, in an American Championship match in 1889:

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:W32,31,30,28,26,23,18,15,13:B17,16,11,8,7,6,5,4,2.

A---Fatal. 6-9 or 11-16 will draw."

1---Play has been textbook perfect to this point---Ed.

You know what we're going to say now: Can you crack this position, or will you crack up trying? Take a crack at it, and then crack that mouse on Read More to see the powerful solution.

Today we are pleased to present the second volume of Grandmaster Richard Pask’s new work on the 3-move openings: 21st Century Checkers 9-14s, or the Double Corner ballots.

As he did with volume 1, Mr. Pask is making this work available in electronic format, free of charge.

The new book can be downloaded here, and will soon appear on our Richard Pask page as linked in the right-hand column; a large selection of Mr. Pask’s other works can also be found there.

Here’s a position taken from the book. The run-up to the diagram is as follows.

9-14 23-19 5-9 27-23 11-15 22-18 15-22 25-18 7-1; 26-22 11-15 18-11 8-15 24-20 15-24 28-1; 4-8 22-18 8-11 30-26 2-7

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Win

B:W31,29,27,26,23,21,20,19,18:B14,12,11,10,9,7,6,3,1.

What would have been the correct move? Can you show the win after 32-27? Can you work all of this out on your own?

See how far you can get, and then click on Read More to see the solutions. And, of course, don’t forget to download the book! Our sincere thanks go to Mr. Pask for allowing us the privilege of presenting his new book.

Labor Day is another holiday that we particularly like because, as we note every year, it celebrates the greatness of the common guy and gal, those hard-working not-so-ordinary "ordinary" folk who have made America what it is today.

We're sorry to say that our politicians have in recent times let the common man down, seemingly oblivious to the economic plight faced by so many. We know that the problems of the American economy are tough ones and not easy to solve, but if there's a will there's a way. It's just that we haven't seen much in the way of will from our leaders in Washington.

So The Checker Maven would like to tell these leaders: Millions and millions of Americans want and need something better, and they're willing to work long and hard to make it happen. You need to help them out. The American workforce is nothing less than awesome. Don't let us down any longer!

We always celebrate this holiday with an offering from one of the greatest American problemists, Tom Wiswell, and Mr. Wiswell is certainly someone who never lets us down. Here's one that we know you will enjoy. It isn't easy, but it's elegant and a bit surprising.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Draw

W:W31,29,K15:B14,13,12,9.

White is a man down and will have to truly labor to obtain a draw. A lot of checker insight is needed to visualize the conclusion. We suggest that you put in your hours and work on this one; if you're able to solve it you'll feel amply rewarded. Then be sure to enjoy Labor Day along with us; you've certainly earned it.

In recent years, checker books have been hard to come by and often expensive. Publication of new checker books has slowed to a trickle; and while most if not all of the new books are very fine indeed, they are often sold in limited quantities through private sources. It all makes it difficult for the new checkerist looking for study material, the collector looking to broaden his collection, or the experienced player looking to expand his horizons even further.

The Checker Maven has reproduced a number of checker works, both old and new, in newly typeset editions; these have met with a generally enthusiastic reception. But as a small publisher there's a limit to how much we can produce, and it's never as much as we or the checker-playing public would wish.

Enter Google Books (books.google.com), which has as its goal the colossal task of digitizing the world's books, both new and old. An incredible and growing selection is available on-line, and checker books have not been neglected.

Go to the site and search for "checkers" or "draughts" and you'll see what we mean. Dozens of books are listed. While a good part of the collection just shows the book cover or a brief extract, there are numerous books listed as free Google ebooks, and these are yours for the taking. The free books tend to be older classics, but what better way to build or expand a collection of quality checker literature?

There are a few limitations. The books are PDF images and are not electronically searchable; some of the scans are imperfect, and of course they look like what they are: images of the pages of old books. But trust us, you'll want to download many of these. They can easily be printed and used in hard-copy, or simplest of all, just read on the computer.

In today's column we'd like to feature a game from one of the real finds on the site, the match book from the 1887-8 contest between Charles Barker of America and James Smith of Scotland. If you don't have this book in your collection, by all means get it for free from Google Books.

The match was won in a convincing fashion by the American champion Barker. Here is the run-up to the critical position in game four, in which Barker drew first blood.

Forms diagram.

A---Definitely loses.

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Win

B:W32,31,29,26,25,20,11:B18,12,10,5,4,2,1.

Can you correct the losing move? Can you find the winning line of play and book the win? Or will the page turn on you? Find the answers and then click on Read More to scan the solution.

Alex Moiseyev retained his 3-move World Championship title with a narrow win over Italian challenger Michele Borghetti in a match characterized by sportsmanship, great play, and much excitement. The final score was 7-6 with 27 draws.

Links to full details can be found on the American Checker Federation website (linked in the left-hand column). We are all grateful to John Acker for streaming the entire match live over the internet, providing hours of checker entertainment to many fans around the world.

Deans, Pearson, and Quinlan: It sounds more like the trio of lawyers shown above than a trio of checkerists credited with thematically related studies, but checkerists they were. We really don't know whether one or more of them might have been lawyers during their time in the mid-to-late 1800s; we suppose it's possible, but we didn't come up with any further information.

We can confidently say, however, that the three positions diagrammed below are eminently practical and, as the latest entries in our Checker School series, well worth your time to master. All positions are shown with White at the top for ease in comparison.

WHITE
E. DEANS

BLACK
White to Play and Draw

W:W26,21,13,K2:BK14,9,6,5.

J. B. PEARSON
WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Win

B:W19,17,13,K7:BK25,6,5,1.

T. QUINLAN
WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Win

B:W15,13,K7:BK14,9,6,1.

These studies "lay down the law," so to speak, for endings of this type. Do your best to find the right moves--- legal moves, of course--- to make your case, then click on Read More for the definitive judgments, including sample games, detailed notes, and a supplementary problem.

Thanks to the fantastic work of John Acker, the current 3-move World Championship match between defending champion Alex Moiseyev of the United States, and challenger Michele Borghetti of Italy, is being streamed live from Cleveland, Ohio. Click on the ACF link on the left side of the page for further information. This is an event that is absolutely not to be missed!

In our ongoing series taken from Willie Ryan's Tricks Traps & Shots of the Checkerboard, we've from time to time found new wrinkles via computer analysis, as we have with today's offering. Willie of course got it right (which happens at least 99% of the time), but there is an interesting line of play that the computer turned up and that Willie apparently didn't examine. Let's have a look as Willie describes the problem.

"The name of Frank Dunne, famed English master of five decades ago---1, holds an illustrious place in the archives of checker literature. His writings on the game were of the highest order, and he made many outstanding contributions to the silent art. Here we record the ever useful Dunne Shot which arises in play from several different openings.

A---If black plays 4-8 here, then white wins quickly with this pretty touch: 14-10!, 7-14, 22-17, 13-22, 26-10, 6-24.

B---Inviting, but fatal. The correct sequence to draw is: 16-20, 30-25, 8-11, 18-15, 11-18, 22-15, 9-18, 23-14, 1-6, 31-26, 3-8, 26-23,13-17, 32-28, 20-24, 27-20, 7-10, 14-7, 2-27, 21-14, 27-31, 19-15. Wm. F. Ryan."

1---At present writing, more like 11 decades---Ed.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:W32,31,30,27,23,22,21,19,18,14:B16,13,12,9,8,7,6,5,3,2.

Bombard this position with your best ideas and see if you can find the White win. As we pointed out above, there are some subtleties here that we discovered with computer analysis, so you may find this an explosive problem, but take a shot and then click on Read More to see the solution.