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Fred C. Shardlow, born in New York around 1874 and subsequently a resident of the Marshall, Minnesota area, was a song composer, and is credited with the song, For the Love of Thee for voice and violin.

Mr. Shardlow was also a checker problem composer, and we feature one of his "Gem" problems in today's Checker School entry. Unfortunately we don't have further information about his checker career, although we did locate some other problems of his published in the American Checker Monthly and the Winnipeg Free Press.

So, for the Love of Checkers, take a look at the following position.

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Draw

B:WK12,15,23,28:B21,K22,K31.

We know you would love to solve it, so please do! And when you're done, you'll love to click your mouse on Read More to verify your solution.

Solution

31-27 23-19---A 27-24 12-16 22-26---B 16-11 26-31---C 11-8 31-26 8-11 26-31---D 11-7 31-26 7-10 26-22 10-7 etc. Drawn. White can make no progress.

A---23-18 27-23 18-14 23-18 Drawn.

B---24-20 15-11 21-25 19-15 22-18 16-12 25-30 15-10 and now Black can't play 18-15 because of 10-6 15-8 12-3 White Wins.

C---Or 26-22 same idea.

D---26-23 is a big blunder: 26-23 11-7 23-16 28-12 White Wins.

A great example of careful play leading to an unexpected man-down draw.