Brian Hinkle's ferocious bear remains on the loose (click on the link to see the problem again) with the large reward as yet unclaimed. And so, Brian is increasing the bounty one last time, to a whopping $100, to which The Checker Maven will add a free copy of the WCC Platinum computer programs, delivered to your door on 13 CDs (a $25 value).

This is your final opportunity to trap the bear and win the reward! If you have the solution, send it to Brian at once. By the first weekend of September, if there is no winner, the reward will go unclaimed. Don't let that happen! Solve the problem and trap the bear right away!

The prize will be awarded at the sole judgment and discretion of Brian Hinkle, whose decision will be final and not subject to appeal. The Checker Maven does not offer or guarantee the cash portion of this prize. Offer void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Staff and relatives of staff of any of the Mr. Fred Investments group of companies are not eligible to participate.

"There are various excuses made by checker players as to why they were beaten. It may have been the arrival of a new baby; the unexpected arrival of his mother-in-law; it might have been the toothache the previous night; the baby may have kept him awake all night on account of its having the colic; the weather may have changed suddenly and brought on a twinge of rheumatism; he may not have had the kind of board to play on to which he is accustomed; a spectator may have smiled at a time when smiles were out of order; some one may have opened a window causing a draught; he may have used a line of play given in the book as sound and it turned out otherwise. The foregoing and many others may all be good and valid excuses, but the finest one of all is, the other fellow was a better player."

Printed more than eighty years ago as The Art of Alibi in the Seattle Times, and still relevant today.

The Checker Maven has two items of interesting news about on-line checker game sites.

First, the upcoming World Mailplay Championship match, between defending champion Mac Banks and challenger Bill Carter, will be played via the internet, on the Wyllie Online Draughts Club site. Members of the site will be able to follow the games as they take place, and a fantastic competition is to be expected. In the qualifying rounds, Challenger Carter didn't lose a single game, so Champion Banks, a competitor with great skill and knowledge, will have to play at the top of his game.

Second, and this is a Checker Maven exclusive, we've learned that the GoldToken turn-based game site is in the process of implementing three-move restriction play, and we understand that they plan to do it right, setting up games in pairs and using the 156 opening "hard" deck. We're told by their site manager that this new option could be available as soon as late summer of this year. We're always glad and appreciative when online game sites take checkers seriously and present our game in an accurate and professional manner.

A concerned Checker Maven reader pointed out to us that, using his Internet Explorer web browser, text selection didn't work properly. When he tried to cut and paste game moves from The Checker Maven into his favorite checker program, he was unable to pick out just the moves, ending up with most of the page instead!

In our editorial offices we almost exclusively use free and open-source software, and we verify new articles with the Firefox web browser; Firefox, of course, didn't have any problem with text selection. So we dug deeper and learned of an Internet Explorer bug triggered by certain style sheet elements. Not wanting to inconvenience any of our readers, we made a few style sheet changes and now text selection works properly with Internet Explorer. The appearance of The Checker Maven has changed very slightly, but it's so little we bet you didn't notice.

We certainly appreciate it when our loyal readers help out by alerting us to problems and errors. Thank you one and all!

We'd like to remind our readers that from now through the first weekend in September, The Checker Maven is on its summer schedule, which means we generally publish one article per week instead of two.

Make no mistake about it. The Wyllie Online Draughts Club, or WODC for short, is all about checkers (or draughts, if you will). It is seriously, determinedly, and single-mindedly about checkers and nothing but checkers. It is a home for the real devotee, the genuine enthusiast, the real maven. It is not a place for casuals, drop-ins, or dabblers. Not at all.

We've been playing there ourselves for a little while now and we're rather impressed.

There are game sites and there are games sites out there on the Net, and we've reviewed dozens of them on our review page. It is safe to say that there is none quite like Wyllie.

Wyllie is a "turn based" or correspondence style site. You make your move, and at some point your opponent moves (whether within minutes or days), and then you move again. You have a ten-day time allotment, plus one day per move, allowing you to schedule your play time and still keep the game moving. Wyllie also offers a "live play" or "head to head" option (limited to Windows computers). For live play, you would likely pre-arrange a meeting in the live play area and then play as you would over the board.

OK, you're saying, this is all well and good, but there are lots of turn-based and head-to-head sites out there, many of them free of charge, a few of them with hundreds and hundreds of players on-line at any given time. So what's so great about Wyllie?

We suggest you read our full review to get all the details, but the difference is that Wyllie is about checkers and checkers only, and some very strong players make it their on-line checker home. Wyllie's on-line tournaments, held more or less monthly, are likely the toughest "mail-play" style tournaments to be found anywhere.

Wyllie offers the things you want if you are really serious about your checkers: the full range of 3-move openings; 11-man ballot play for the daring; complete game records which are protected from random public view; and perhaps best of all, a strict "real name" policy which eliminates 99.99% of the potential pests and undesirables, making the site a pleasure rather than something to be tolerated.

Is WODC for you? It depends. If you like to play a casual game at a summer picnic while enjoying a few tall cool ones, perhaps not. If you're a regular Checker Maven reader and try to solve the problems each week, very likely so; likewise, if you're an enthusiastic competitor from the lower intermediate level and up, you will benefit and enjoy. Membership is not free, but neither is it expensive. You might wish to check it out and decide for yourself.

But enough commentary; as we said above, you can read the full review if you'd like all the details. Let's illustrate the caliber of play at the Wyllie site with a pair of sample tournament games, played between Welsh grandmaster Lindus Edwards and world mail-play champion Mac Banks. (We told you that there are elite players here!) Notes are by Lindus Edwards.

Black: Lindus Edwards
White: Mac Banks

1.	10-15	23-18	2.	6-10	18-14
3.	9x18	24-19	4.	15x24	22x6
5.	1x10	27x20---A

			6.	11-16---B	20x11
7.	8x15	21-17	8.	12-16	25-22
9.	5-9	17-13	10.	2-6	32-27
11.	4-8	27-23	12.	16-19	23x16
13.	8-12	26-23	14.	12x26	30x23
15.	9-14	23-19	16.	15x24	28x19
17.	7-11	29-25	18.	11-15

Drawn.

A---A favourite line of Dr Marion Tinsley.

B---5-9 is published to draw. 11-16 looks a far easier route to me.

Black: Lindus Edwards
White: Mac Banks

1.	9-13	24-20	2.	11-16	20x11
3.	7x16	21-17	4.	5-9	28-24
5.	1-5	25-21	6.	3-7	23-18
7.	16-19	24x15	8.	10x19	32-28
9.	12-16	17-14	10.	8-12	26-23
11.	19x26	30x23	12.	6-10	31-26
13.	10x17	21x14

			14.	7-10---A	14x7
15.	2x11	28-24---B

Drawn.

A---A saving move!

B---The draw is now simple as follows: 16-20 24-19 11-16 29-25 9-14 18-9 5-14 25-21 13-17 Drawn.

Brian Hinkle's challenging Bear Claw problem (click on the link to see it again) is still unsolved, and so Brian is raising the bounty to $50. He has asked that we not publish the solution until the bounty is claimed. If you think you have the bear in your trap, send your solution to Brian right away.

This prize is offered by Brian Hinkle and will be awarded at his sole discretion and judgment. The Checker Maven does not offer or guarantee this prize. Offer void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Staff and relatives of staff of any of the Mr. Fred Investments group of companies are not eligible to participate.

Brian Hinkle is offering a prize of US $25 to the first solver of his infamous Bear Claw problem (click here to see it again).

Thus far, no one has been able to capture this growling bear. Can you be the first? Brian has a reward for you if you are!

We've delayed publication of the solution until April 8 to give you a little more time to claim the bounty. Can you do it? Send your solutions to Brian as quickly as possible!

This prize is offered by Brian Hinkle and will be awarded at his sole discretion and judgment. The Checker Maven does not offer or guarantee this prize. Offer void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Staff and relatives of staff of any of the Mr. Fred Investments group of companies are not eligible to participate.

The Checker Maven is announcing what we call The Draughtsberg Project, modeled a bit after the Gutenberg Project, which is an ambitious attempt to create an electronic library of all the classic works of literature.

Our project, already begun, is an effort to bring back checker books in electronic form. The sad situation today is that at most there are a dozen or so books about Anglo-American checkers in print; everything else has to be obtained hit-or-miss on the used book market, at whatever may be the cost. Public libraries generally have very little in their collections. It is a difficult situation for an up-and-coming checker player, or for anyone with any interest at all in checker literature.

We propose, over a rather extended period of time, to issue newly typeset electronic editions of important checker works that have passed into the public domain, as well as others still under copyright for which proper permissions can be obtained.

We have set ourselves the lofty goal of providing a high-quality, no-cost checker library that can be used for generations to come.

For more detail, including a proposed list of essential books and an invitation to participate, please click on Read More.

[Read More]

With the kind approval of grandmaster Richard Pask, The Checker Maven is pleased to present an electronic reissue of Mr. Pask's classic, Key Landings. Dealing with 25 especially important mid-game landings, this book is suitable for the intermediate to advanced player.

The content of the reissue is unchanged from the original 1990 publication, although the electronic edition has been completely reset with large, clear diagrams and other typographic improvements. The book is available for free download; follow the Richard Pask link in the right-hand column or just click here.

Our thanks go to Richard Pask for permission to republish this important work. Additionally, during the course of 2006, watch here for new editions of Mr. Pask's Key Themes and Key Endings.