By Peter Van den Bossche from Mechelen, Belgium
Streets of Govan, a run-down area of Glasgow, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Govan is indeed a run-down area of Glasgow, which however for years was home of the Govan Press, a local newspaper which apparently published checker columns. For today's Checker School entry, we have a problem by famous problemist S. J. Pickering, which was published in that (presumably at least somewhat illustrious) newspaper way back when. The problem illustrates a number of important checker tactics.

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Draw

B:B5,15,22,K13:W7,30,K6,K16

In fact, there is a comparable problem attributed to another famous checkerist, Barker Woolhouse (you can learn all about him on the marvelous Start Checkers site).

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Draw

W:B11,K19,K26:W8,14,18

So today you have not one, but two problems to work on. They aren't especially hard but they are quite educational. So stay out of run-down neighborhoods and instead solve these problems, then run your mouse down on Read More to see the solutions.

Public Domain Pictures CC0

The press. It might refer to a printing press, as above, or perhaps a press reporter. Or maybe pressing clothes, as shown below.

PickPik CC0

There are also a coffee press, press-on nails, and many other things. But in checkers, of course, press has its own meaning, and if you solve today's Checker School problem, you'll see an example. (There ... we've already given a big hint.) The problem is attributed to one E. J. Rees and appears in Andrew Banks' eclectic book Checker Board Strategy.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:W18,22,27,29,31,K32:B4,7,K8,13,K26

This one isn't particularly hard, although there's an unusual twist. Press on and find the solution. No press-ure; take all the time you wish, and then press your mouse on Read More to see the solution and some interesting notes.

Public Domain

The expression "Can't win for losing" traces back to at least 1920 when it was used to describe the Detroit Tigers baseball team, which apparently was not having a good start to their season.

This phrase applies specifically to our game of checkers as well, if we alter the context a little. There are positions in which all moves lose--- except one, which wins or draws as the case may be. This happens very often. A little less frequently, there are series of such moves, which are called "star moves" being the only moves that avoid loss or preserve a win or draw.

Here's one such situation, sent along by regular contributors Lloyd and "Gosh Josh" Gordon.

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play; Both to Draw

B:W14,17,18,19,21,22,23,24,27,28,32:B5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,16,20

Here both sides have to watch their steps to obtain a draw. Can you avoid losing? Maybe you can't win, but can you at least hold the draw? Give it a go. It's a little beyond a normal first Saturday speed problem but it's worth a little extra time and effort. Do click on Read More to verify your play.

We thought for today's column we'd try something new; namely, publish a checker problem composed by one of the better artificial intelligence (AI) engines. So we got on to one of them--- although we won't mention the name, it's by far the most well known--- and gave it a try.

It was a real learning experience.

We started out by asking it to compose a problem for 8x8 Anglo-American checkers. It happily did so, putting pieces on both the light and dark squares, and then offering to compose more difficult problems. We went through two more iterations and got the same sort of thing.

We then explicity told it to only put pieces on the dark squares (something it had previously told us it was doing, but it wasn't). Same result. We admonished it again. It came back with a problem and a solution that made no sense. For one thing the pieces were either (a) moving in the wrong direction, or (b) it was just fine to have an uncrowned man on the last row.

Tom Wiswell
Public Domain

After this we asked for sources of checker puzzles. It gave a few, with mixed accuracy; some of the websites cited didn't feature problems and the same was true of the referenced books. (It did give a pointer to our site, which was surprising but nice.) The engine also casually mentioned Tom Wiswell and offered to compose a Wiswell-style problem. Alas, that was a bust too, as again it confused movement directions and spewed out something that made no sense.

Rawpixel Public Domain

That was enough for us, and for today's column we turned back the clock to something well over a hundred years before AI and AI hype was ever even heard of, to select a nice problem by an honest to goodness human, who knew orders of magnitude more about composing checker problems than the best AI today seems to know.

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Win

B:W8,10,18,K21:B3,12,K20,27

It's a nice problem, neither too hard nor too easy, which can be readily solved with your natural intelligence. Blow a raspberry at AI and solve this one, and then click on Read More to check your solution.

Wikimedia Commons CC4

So what's the correct spelling of "encylopedia"? (The younger amongst you might even ask "What's an encylopedia?" as they've just about gone the way of the dinosaurs.) The modern spelling is as just given--- encylopedia. But the older spelling is more like "encyclopaedia" although not exactly --- the 'a' and 'e' in the 'ae' combination are really a single character once called "ash" which represents the Latin 'ae' dipthong. A bit on the academic side? Perhaps, but interesting nonetheless.

The following checkerboard situation, also on the academic side, is derived from the famous opening guide called Kear's Encylopaedia, and we'll stick with the classier old style spelling as Kear himself did. It's on p. 370 and arises from a variation in a Souter opening. Black has just erred and now White has what is truly a textbook win. The problem is slanted more towards the advanced beginner or lower intermediate player, but our expert readers should see how quickly they can solve it.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:W14,19,20,23,27,31,32:B2,4,5,7,8,11,12

It doesn't require encyclop(a)edic knowlege to solve this one, but it does require a grasp of some endgame basics. Give it a try and then click on Read More for the solution.

Louise Nguyen CC4

It happens every January. The holiday season has come to an abrupt end, and it's back to work as usual for another year. Depressing? Perhaps. But don't let it get you down. We have a nice checker problem to help cheer you up and distract you from reality. It's from our nearly exhausted stock of problems by the late grandmaster composer Edgar Atkinson, who composed it at age 14 and had it published in Elam's Checker Board in December 1952, until the title Youthful Efforts.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Draw

W:W22,25,26,27,28,29:B3,8,10,13,15,16,17

White is a man down; can you find the draw? It's not really that difficult ... or is it? Give it a try and then click on Read More to see the solution.

Intense focus and concentration. You can't play championship checkers without it.

In today's Checker School installment we learn something that Mr. Andrew J. Banks thinks is important. Here's what he had to say in his unusual and entertaining book Checker Board Strategy as published some 80 years ago.

MEMORY --- CONCENTRATION

Concentration is the second method of developing a logical memory. As we walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, crowded with people and noisy traffic, or stop for a foamy, fizzy strawberry ice cream soda, we concentrate upon only about one one-hundreth of what is going on around us. In the same way, it is possible to run over a checker game and learn practically nothing. On the other hand, when the Internationalist showed Hatley how to solve a problem, Hatley's eyes popped open as he took in some startling maneuvre. He was alert; the new idea stood out on the horizon of this memory "like Mars at Perihelion." By concentration, we remember ideas rather than moves.

To illustrate his point, which we believe is that attentive problem solving yields more results than inattentive game replay, Mr. Banks gives us the following problem.

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Draw

B:WK1,K15,28,30:B7,21,K27,K29

It's quite a nice little problem, with two solutions, the shorter way (which Mr. Banks surely intended you to find) or the longer way. Go for the shorter way and see if you can find it, then concentrate your mouse on Read More to see the solution.

You're an adventurer about to enter strange and reputedly dangerous territory. Look ahead ... is it a trap? Is it safe to proceed?

Our game of checkers is no stranger to devious traps and the need for caution. Let's explore this a bit.

In our ongoing Checker School series, we've been (more or less) following along in the fascinating and eclectic book Checker Board Strategy by Andrew J. Banks, published back in the mid 1940s. One chapter in Mr. Banks' book is entitled "Denvir Strokes" featuring situations taken from the work of the controversal old-time player and writer John T. Denvir (no, it's not the more modern folk-singer who went by the pseudonym John Denver). Mr. Banks presents most of Denvir's problems as "traps" given the title of Denvir's 1894 book, Denvir's Traps and Shots.

Now, given Mr. Denvir's mixed reputation, we're not totally sure if the following is an original of his, but he does claim it was from one of his over the board games.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:W14,17,18,19,20,27,30,31,32:B2,4,5,7,8,10,11,12,21

It's actually quite a good problem, although perhaps not for the reasons you think. Why is this called a "trap"? You'll see when you solve it or click on Read More to see the solution.

Nick Kendrick CC 2

The old expression "all roads lead to Rome" stems from the long-ago empire of Rome once being the center of everything. Today, the saying generally means that there can be many ways to achieve the same goal.

We can apply this to our game of checkers, too. Here's a relatively easy speed problem that can be solved via multiple initial moves, but the play leads to the same result in all cases.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:W30,23,21,16,13,10:B19,9,6,3,1

Can you find the "roads to Rome"? We think you can, and when you have, click on Read More to check your solution.

She's searching for something and obviously not finding it. She'll just have to look harder, and hopefully eventually will achieve success.

It's the same in our game of checkers. In some of the worst circumstances, when we think we're hopelessly lost, we need to look harder. Checkers is full of subtle resources and often enough there is some hidden feature in the position that will allow for a draw--- or even a win.

In the diagram below, we see that Black doesn't have much in the way of options, and while we can't expect a Black win, it's worth looking hard for a possible draw. This one isn't too difficult and falls close to being a speed problem, but nevertheless there's something rather clever to be found--- if you look for it.

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Draw

B:W27,23,21,13:B20,15,14,10

Have a good hard look and then let your mouse find its way to Read More to see the solution.