This year, Marvin was going to be ready.

Marvin J. Mavin, the superstar captain of the Detroit Doublejumpers in the National Checker League (NCL) had had problems in the past with training camp. The NCL season ran from September to May, with pre-seasons training camps held in August.

The Doublejumper training camp, as was the case with most of the NCL teams, was quite rigorous. It involved serious physical training as well as an intense regimen of checker study. Various coaches led sessions in problem solving, opening, endgames, mid-games, and so on. The hours were long and discipline was strict.

Marvin wasn't so good with discipline. He wasn't so good with strict, either, and he'd been in constant trouble at previous training camps. It had even led to his leaving the team briefly the previous year.

To be fair, there had been a series of over-zealous if not downright abusive coaches (see previous Checker Maven stories). The current Doublejumper coach, Baba Dudut, was a lot more fair minded, but he didn't have much of a liking for Marvin.

But Marvin had discussed matters with his wife, Priscilla Snelson, who was the high-powered CEO of the Rust Belt Holdings, a giant Detroit based conglomerate. Priscilla convinced Marvin to go to camp physically and mentally prepared, ready to follow the rules and do whatever was asked of him.

So it was with all this in mind that Marvin boarded the team bus in Detroit and rode with the team to the appropriately named Au Train, Michigan site of the Doublejumper training camp.

Au Train was in a beautiful area in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. There were sparkling lakes, cool and quiet wooded areas, and the overall atmosphere was perfect for training.

Things went well for the first week or so, and even Baba Dudut himself remarked that Marvin seemed to be "a new man with a new attitude." Marvin did the morning runs without complaint, did extra laps when told to do so, and participated actively in all the training activities.

There was just one little problem. While the food was great, featuring plenty of fresh caught fish, locally sourced seasonal vegetables, and lots of grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, there was a very strict rule against alcohol.

Now, if you've followed our stories over the years, you'll know that Marvin liked his beer. Certainly, he wasn't an alcoholic--- the team would never keep him on if he was--- but he did like a beer or maybe two once in while. And that's where the trouble began.

In the third week of the four weeks of training camp, all of the coaches needed to go to a special meeting at NCL headquarters in Ohio to hear about rule changes for the upcoming season. The idea was for them to be trained and then in turn train their players before camp ended. To make a long story short, the coaches would be away from Friday afternoon through Monday morning.

The players were left on their own for that time period. The coaches left them work to do, including problem solving and a mini team tournament to play on Sunday. They then were expected to do problem solving on Monday morning. The regular schedule would resume on Monday afternoon with the return of the coaches.

Everything went fine until the conclusion of the tournament on Sunday at about four in the afternoon, when Marvin, as captain, spoke up.

"Like, hey guys, we've been working real hard and stuff, so like, you know, why don't we, like, take the bus into town and have steaks at the Blackstone?"

There were nods of agreement. Camp food was very good, but the team wouldn't mind a break and a change of pace.

Now, there was nothing wrong, so far, with any of this and once or twice in every year's camp session, the coaches did indeed take everyone into town.

So one of the camp attendants started up the bus and everyone boarded for the ride to the Blackstone. It was all good fun and soon the team (twelve in all; the two squads of five each and two utility players) was seated at a big round table and ordering their steak and shrimp dinners.

That's when Marvin said, 'Know what? Why don't we act up a little and get a couple of pitchers of beer?"

There were murmurs around the table. Beer certainly wasn't allowed. "Aw, c'mon guys, loosen up! A pitcher of beer ain't gonna hurt nothing!" Marvin signalled to the waitress. "Hey there young lady, we need about five pitchers of beer over here!"

The waitress smiled, happy to have the boys run up the bill. Soon thereafter five big pitchers of a local brew, U.P. Gold, arrived and the waitress started filling beer mugs.

Marvin led off with a toast to good times at camp. Pretty soon most of the players were following his lead--- he was captain, after all--- at first sipping and then taking larger quaffs of the really excellent beer.

Dinner came and with it more pitchers of beer. After a couple of hours it started to get a little rowdy but the beer kept on coming. Finally, around 10 PM when the restaurant was closing, the boys settled the bill. But by then they were pretty well inebriated.

They sang raucous songs for a while on the bus back to camp, but many of them were falling asleep. A lot of beer after a sustained abstinence didn't have exactly a positive effect.

Somehow they must have all stumbled into their cots. A few of them got sick on the floors of their cabins.

At around 11 the following morning, all the coaches returned to camp and the team members were still in their cots suffering from terrible hangovers.

The coaches were livid and none more so than Baba Dudut, the head coach. It didn't take him long to get the story; the bus driver parted with it willingly after being told his job could be on the line.

Baba Dudut filled a pail with cold water, went to Marvin's cabin, and proceeded to empty the bucket over Marvin's head as he lay in bed groaning in uneasy sleep.

Marvin woke, instantly sober.

"What have you got to say for yourself?" Coach asked.

"Uh, gee, Coach, whaddya mean?"

'WHAT DO I MEAN? YOU'LL SEE WHAT I MEAN!"

By this time the other coaches had roused all the players.

"You're all going for a swim! On the double down to the lake!" Coach commanded.

Lake Au Train, even in August, is very cold, and today the water temperature was about 64F (18C). As the boys entered the water they started to shiver and a couple of them sicked up again. "Yeah, it's cold in there, better start swimming!" Coach yelled.

After about 15 minutes, the Problem Coach, Tom Riddleme, came to the lakefront with a big display board. He began to show checker problems on it.

"No one gets out of the water until all of Coach Riddleme's problems are solved!" Coach Baba Dudut exclaimed.

The team had to solve quite a few problems including the one below.

All told they were made to stay in the water for over an hour and after that tjey had to do laps around the lake until they were completely exhausted. The rest of the last week of training camp followed a similar pattern.

At one point Marvin was called to Coach's cabin and given the dressing down of his life.

"I'm fining everyone on the team $50,000 each," Coach said at one point. "But you, as the instigator, I'm fining $500,000 and you can take it or leave it. You'll also make a public apology to the coaches, the owners, and your teammates. If you do all that maybe I'll let you stay on as captain and not send you down for a year in Rookie League. And by the way if your teammates are angry with you, you can pay half of their fines for them."

Marvin knew better than to say anything. And he knew he had an even bigger problem--- how to explain all of this to Priscilla when he got back home.

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Can you solve the problem above, which challenged the Doublejumpers? Could you solve it standing up to your neck in 64F water? Fortunately, you can solve it in comfort; see how it goes and then click on Read More to see the solution.

Solution

10-7 3x10 14x7 5x14 7-3 2x9 11-15 18x11 3-8 27x18 8x6 30x16 31-26 21x30 6-9 30x23 9x11 White Wins.

If you were able to visualize this without moving the pieces, you're really good. If you were able to solve it immersed in chilly lake water, you're ready for the big leagues.

This stroke problem is due to A. C. Hews.