Checker Maven reader and checker enthusiast Bob Price sent us a set of files that can be printed out and made up as 3-move-restriction card decks. We converted Bob's files to PDF format and now you can have them too. Here are Bob's instructions (slightly edited) on what you should do:

"One file is the back of the card, another is the first 10 cards, and the third is the last of the 5 cards (twice to not waste labels.) So if you print the first two files twice and the last file once, you will have 2 full decks. I added the 14th move card on barred openings as a bonus (and again just to not waste a card.) They are designed to work with Avery 5371 labels. I printed out a set and laminated them and they seem fine."

You can get everything you need by clicking on the 3-Move Deck entry in the Download section in the right-hand column, or just click right here.

Our thanks to Bob for sending this our way.

Lest you be mistaken, this isn't the Doogz to whom we refer, and today's problem has nothing to do with that new British genre of music known as grime, nor are we concerned with the London grime musician formerly known as Doogz, and who now calls himself Durrty Goodz.

Instead, we're talking about a checker player from Glasgow, Scotland, named Douglas, and who uses the name Doogz on the It's Your Turn game site. Douglas, or Doogz, was kind enough to send us the following problem.

There are several branches in the solution, and full credit is only obtained if you find them all. Are you up to this rather "grimy" challenge? Try it out, and then click on Read More when you've "come clean" and are ready to check your results.

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Some years ago, Jon Kreuzer started work on a checker playing program as an experiment in developing game-tree searching code. The experiment was refined over time, and when a graphical-user interface (GUI) was added, Jon gave his program a logical name: GUI Checkers. (You can click on the screen-shot above for a much more detailed full-sized version.)

The nascent GUI Checkers got the attention of world-class checker programmer Martin Fierz (creator of CheckerBoard and the Cake series of engines), and Jon was inspired to invest additional effort to improve GUI's playing strength and features.

The result is before us today: GUI Checkers release 1.00, and it is most impressive.

We put GUI through its paces here at The Checker Maven, first running our standard test against Simple Checkers. GUI won easily, and we wondered just how far GUI might go. We next tested against Marujito 1.08a, which itself can defeat Simple Checkers. GUI won that encounter as well. So we kept pushing. We then ran GUI against the solid Class B engine Damas 99. (Class B engines easily defeat Simple Checkers and are quite strong, but short of world class.) The result was an interesting draw (click here for animation), played without error or missed opportunity on either side.

But we had a hunch, and so we played GUI against Nexus, the strong forerunner of the world-class Nemesis program. Amazingly, GUI won the encounter! Of course, one game doesn't tell the whole story, but the win was most impressive. Here's the situation, and we invite you to find the winning line before clicking on Read More for the solution and full game animation.

GUI 1.00 is thus established as a top Class B entry. It doesn't beat KingsRow or Cake Manchester, but it certainly plays a very worthy game. GUI features a small opening book and a small endgame database, a really nice look and feel, and some serious-minded features such as FEN and PDN import and export.

Author Jon Kreuzer granted the The Checker Maven an interview, and we learned that while he has produced an extraordinary checker engine, he has a more general interest in board game programming, having started with an Othello playing program while at Cornell University, and also having a strong chess playing engine to his credit. He has a current interest in 3D programming, as evidenced at his web site, 3D Kingdoms.

In talking about GUI Checkers, Jon points out that the program is open source and is probably the strongest open source checker program to be found. He does not have ambitions to advance it to the world-class category, but nevertheless has additional ideas on how to make it stronger and add features. He's especially interested in improving the opening book.

We asked Jon if he ever thought checkers would be completely "solved." He thought that perhaps it might, and that could limit his interest in further checker programming, but held out hope for the rest of us: "I don't think it should affect games between people." Well said, Jon, and congratulations on your fine achievement with GUI Checkers!

(GUI Checkers can be obtained from the author's web site, and it's well worth your while to do so.)

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A revised electronic edition of Arthur Reisman's Checkers Made Easy is now available for download in PDF format; see the link in the Download section in the right-hand column. This edition corrects typesetting errors and includes a short section of endnotes with some new analysis. It's well worth getting this updated edition, and the PDF file is now many times smaller and more manageable.

This past week, September 26-30, 2005, checker history was made as the 8th International Match between the United States and the United Kingdom took place in Las Vegas, 100 years after the first match was played in Boston in 1905.

That first match was easily won by the U.K. team. But the tide turned thereafter in a westerly direction, as all subsequent matches have been won by the U.S. The score of last week's 100th anniversary match was 71-18 in favor of the Yanks, with 111 draws. The full story can be read on the American Checker Federation web site; there you can also make donations toward the costs of the event, and find out about the forthcoming match book.

American grandmaster and World Champion Alex Moiseyev was unable to play, as were British grandmasters Lindus Edwards and Richard Pask. One can only speculate as to how the results might have differed had these very strong players been in the mix.

Women's World Champion Patricia Breen was on the British squad, as was former Women's World Champion Joan Caws. Ms. Breen soon defends her title against New Zealand's Jan Mortimer in a match that promises to be hard fought, close, and exciting.

The Checker Maven congratulates all concerned: players, officials, organizers, hosts, and visitors. A long, sportsmanlike, and genteel checker rivalry, which brings the highest honor to our game, has added another fine chapter to its history.

This month's speed problems are very easy.... but there's a catch. We want you to solve each of them within a five second time limit.

Our infamous clock will start the instant you click on the links below, and we're timing you right down to the millisecond. Test your visualization: how fast can you see?

Solutions can be verified by clicking Read More, though we're pretty sure you won't need much help.

Eye Test #1

Eye Test #2

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At the time that this article achieves publication, it will be near the end of the 2005 baseball season. But, since quite a few of our pieces are written well in advance, we don't know at the moment who the pennant contenders might be.

The Dodgers, of course, were in the running for many a year. We're referring, naturally, to the immortal Brooklyn Dodgers, the "Brooklyn Bums" beloved of many a checker player, including Willie Ryan and, we're certain, Tommie Wiswell.

In fact, today's feature problem is called "The Dodger" though it doesn't have any sort of baseball theme that we can readily discern. Here's the situation:

There's what appears to be a fairly obvious solution staring right at you, but there is a "dodge" for Black to avoid the loss and another "dodge" for White to win it nonetheless.

"Dodge" erroneous play, win the pennant for White, and check your answer by clicking on Read More.

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Today we bring you two Tom Wiswell problems--- a doubleheader--- which bear a certain relationship. If you solve the first one, it will help you with at least one major variant of the second one.

But this doesn't mean that a "Sunday doubleheader" (alas, seldom seen these days) will turn into a "Sunday picnic." Not at all. In fact, when these problems appeared around sixty years back, there was plenty of discussion and controversy. In the end, Mr. Wiswell collaborated with one of the more colorful checker characters ever (next to Willie Ryan): Mr. Julius D'Orio, he of the "triangle" theory of checkers, to come up with a definitive solution.

And, as we shall see, modern computer analysis bears out the solution to what has been called the D'Orio-Wiswell Position.

Did you get that one? Now try this one:

White is two men up, so it's easy--- until you try it.

When you've played out both ends of the doubleheader, click on Read More for solutions and commentary.

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Yes, you'll find this on many calendars that list unusual holidays or celebrations --- September 23 is indeed Checkers Day!

If you're a checker player and you've somehow never heard of this, there's a reason. The origin of Checkers Day lies not in the game of checkers, but in the fact that on September 23, 1952, Richard M. Nixon, then a candidate for Vice-President of the United States, gave his famous "Checkers" speech. "Checkers" was the name of the Nixon family dog; perhaps that is why September 23 is also "Dogs in Politics" day.

But let's set the politics aside, and celebrate Checkers Day in our own way ... with a few games of checkers, perhaps a little coffee and cake, and plenty of fun!

Oh ... we didn't really mean that kind of stroke, but actually this kind:

Can you bring the solution to the "fore" with this month's somewhat easier stroke problem? Click on Read More to see if your solution is up to "par"!

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