Albany hosts American Pool Checker Association National Tournament | PHOTO GALLERY

ALBANY — American pool checkers players from across the country are in Albany this week battling it out in the annual American Pool Checker Association National Tournament, which is being held in the Good Life City for the first time in the tournament’s history.

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The national tournament, now in its 49th year, features competitions across multiple skill classes, including Top Master, Master, Junior Master, Gold Bar, and Blue Ribbon, that test players of all levels in the art of American pool checkers.

Pool checkers is a variant of traditional checkers, in which single pieces can jump both forward and backward and a king can jump forward and backward and is not limited to moving just one space.

According to Wayne Lockheart, the national tournament director, this year’s tournament, which got under Monday night and will conclude Thursday evening at Merry Acres Inn and Event Center, will see roughly 100 competitors battling it out for trophies and prizes in each division.

“We hope to have around 100 players this week, from all over the country,” said Lockheart.

In fact, like the players who come to compete, the tournament itself moves to a different host city every year based on which local club makes the best bid presentation, not unlike the selection of an Olympic host city.

“Our national organization is made up of local clubs from around the country,” said Lockheart. “Last year we were in Memphis, Tenn. We’ve been in Atlanta. We’ve actually been to the Bahamas, twice, for our national tournament. And Houston, Texas, and Chicago; we’ve been all over.”

This year the event came to Albany thanks to the presentation made by the Albany Pool Checkers Club, which boasts about 30 members according to club president Henry Mathis, who pointed out how important it is to have the event in Albany.

“It’s big, economically and socially,” said Mathis. “The members have their spouses, they have their kids, grandkids and as we speak more than a dozen have gone out to eat in local restaurants, so its been a good thing for us. We’re pleased that we’ve been able to get with the American Pool Checker Association and present a package that was worthy. And we have them here. It’s a great thing for Albany.”

Mathis said that players and their families will spend much of the day today Wednesday touring the community and visiting attractions like the Albany Civil Rights Institute, the Flint RiverQuarium and the Ray Charles Plaza, before convening at Merry Acres for competition.

The event began Monday night with a welcome reception and some friendly, unofficial competition, and the real battles began Tuesday at 2 p.m. and ran until midnight. Players pick back up Wednesday with matches starting at 8 a.m. and running until midnight. The tournament itself will wrap up Thursday at 2 p.m. followed by an awards banquet at 6 p.m.

Anyone is welcome to come and watch the competition throughout the remaining days and organizers are hoping the event will foster interest in the game from those who may have not been exposed, especially younger people.

“We encourage youth, youth, youth, youth to get involved because it improves their analytical skills,” said Mathis. “And it not only improves their analytical skills, intellectually it puts two people together to outsmart, outwit, and out talk one another.”

“Actually the game of checkers teaches character skills like patience,” added Lockheart. “You have to be patient to be a good checker player. It also teaches you perspicacity, which is persevering, you don’t give up. On a checkerboard sometimes you run into situations that look hopeless but you don’t give out, you don’t give up, you think your way through the situation and the same thing pertains to life. We want people to be able to deal with life and not give up on situations that look bad, and think your way through. You have to have foresight to look ahead. Checkers teaches you all of that.”

Lockheart and Mathis also pointed out that playing checkers and other board games is proven to help prevent the spread of Alzheimer’s disease, which affects millions annually.

“It has been scientifically proven that 70 percent of individuals who play board games are less likely to be victims of Alzheimer’s,” said Mathis.

To help prove the point, Mathis pointed to one of this competitors, George Robinson, who at age 98, made the journey to Albany to compete in his 48th national tournament.

“This is our 49^th national tournament and George has only missed one due to illness,” Lockheart said. “He took a bus ride for 14 hours from Toledo, Ohio, just to play checkers at 98 years old. He loves the game.”

Robinson is part of the long history of American pool checkers, which, according to American Pool Checker Association President Clarence Gooche, began in earnest in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Gooche said that two Detroit, Mich. residents, Nathaniel Leach and John Otis, started noticing a lot of people around the city playing what was then called “Spanish Pool” checkers, a faster-paced variation of straight checkers. The two also noticed that the rules of the game seemed to change depending on who was playing and where.

“When you start talking about the history of American pool checkers you have to go back to Detroit,” said Gooche. “They (Leach and Otis) saw guys playing checkers out on the corners and under shade trees and stuff like that but there was no rules, no organization, nothing like that. Everybody had their own rules depending on what area of the city they came from or even what state they came from. So these guys said, ‘well look why not organize this and have national tournaments.’”

In an effort to organize and codify the rules of the game the pair talked with Newell Banks, a grandmaster and a blindfold expert in straight checkers, who offered them guidance in forming an organization.

In 1961 Leach and Otis formed the American Pool Checker Association which was registered as a non-profit organization. The newly-formed association’s first big event was the Midwest Open Tournament in 1965, which came along with the publication of the Point Manual and Rules book which was based on the American Pool Checker Association philosophy of game play, thus bringing uniformity to the game.

Finally in 1966 the pair’s dream became a reality when the American Pool Checker Association hosted its first national tournament in Detroit, which hosted players from all across the country.

Following the success of that first tournament the association started granting affiliate charters to checkers clubs around the country, with the Georgia Pool Checker Association receiving the first affiliate charter in 1976.

One of those affiliate associations is the Albany Pool Checkers Club, which Mathis said has about 30 active members that are engaged and meet regularly at the club’s headquarters at 301 W. Highland.

“Down there in the Harlem Business District there’s people playing all day every day,” said Mathis. “Many are retired but we have young, middle aged, old, anybody.”

Gooche and Lockheart made sure to point out that American pool checkers, despite having strong roots in the United States within the African American community, is open to anyone who is interested.

“From a historical perspective checkers has always been important to black heritage and we’ve played with pop tops,” said Mathis. “It’s been played in barbershops, on street corners in back yards, just anywhere where a couple of individuals can get together and compete against each other.”

“Our tournaments are open to all regardless of race, gender or nationality,” added Gooche. “We’ve had players from the Bahamas, Russia, Africa, all over. Anyone is welcome.”

To learn more about American pool checkers and the American Pool Checker Association visit the association’s website www.americanpoolcheckers.us. To learn more about the Albany Pool Checkers Club contact Mathis at (229) 395-6107 or via email at [email protected].