Bobjgalindo CC BY-SA 4.0

Who wants to start off the New Year in a dull and boring manner? The waterfall jumper above is certainly looking to make this day anything but routine.

And while we can't recommend waterfall jumping for everyone, the same principle applies to checkers. How about we start off 2019 with a real bang, courtesy of regular contributors Lloyd and Josh Gordon of Toronto?

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Draw

B:W18,19,21,23,26,27,28,29,32:B3,9,10,11,12,14,16,17,20.

Black seems to have only one mobile piece. Can he truly pull out a draw?

This may be just a little past the 30 second "speed problem" category, but it's not terribly difficult and it certainly is loaded with action.

Kick off your checker year with some real thrills. Solve the problem and then jump your mouse onto Read More to check your solution.

Solution

9-13!---A 18x9 11-15! 21x7 15x31 26-22---C 3x10 32-27 31x24 28x19 10-14 to a draw.

A---Using Black's 'free move' doesn't work: 3-7 (3-8 similar) 28-24 9-13---B 18x9 10-14 29-25 14-18 etc. White Wins.

B---Black can't play 11-15 as in the main line, and will lose.

C---The computer likes this slightly better than 7-2, which would actually leave Black with a very slight edge.