Acknowledgements

The following people were instrumental in helping me build this website. They are in no particular order.

Martin Fiertz

For writing, releasing, and then open sourcing his program CheckerBoard. It's his code that provided the standard interface to interact with checkers engines. And by writing the documentation and open sourcing his program he helped me understand how to interact with the dlls.

He also provided the end-game database files that hugely increase the playing strength of the checkers engines.

Ed Gilbert

For writing and letting me use his phenomenal checkers engine KingsRow.

He's letting me use his engine for free to make these problems. And he wrote excellent documentation on how to interpret the engine's output.

Hans l'Hoest, Jim Loy, & others

For compiling a PDN of 20,000 checkers games called the Open Checkers Archive. Check the 3rd party addons at the bottom of Fiertz's download page.

This archive along with one from the American Checkers Federation is essential to me. I can't scan games looking for problems if I don't have games.

Michael Hartl

I started this website by following his Rails Tutorial and building his toy twitter clone. I had used rails a little before attempting this project but that tutorial got me started again. If you have any interest in programming or web development buy his book.

Richard

For creating the inspiration for this site, ChessTempo And for on his active presence on their forum. He's answered questions from me and others about how he builds his site and his problems. I have spent a lot of time there. I can only hope that this imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Rob Jackel

For challenging me to build this site. In the summer of 2014 we were playing a friendly game of checkers and I was lamenting the lack of good learning tools. He asked, "why don't you build one?"

Brian Sherwin

For testing, feedback, and suggestions. His innumerable bug reports and suggestions have been instrumental in fixing the worst offenses of a lazy programmer.

Andi Peredri

For creating and putting the 'old' checkers pieces on open game art.

Related Links

Links to other checkers resources or articles I find interesting.

The Checker Maven

Bob Newell writes a webzine about checkers every Saturday morning. Only rarely can I solve the puzzles he gives, but they're always fascinating.

The American Checkers Federation

The place to go if you're looking for official boards or pieces. They also have tons of info about tournaments, history, news, etc.

Marion Tinsley

An obituary of the strongest checkers player who ever lived.

Chinook

Checker's version of Deep Blue. The computer program that solved checkers. One jump ahead is a fascinating book.

Draughts

A great entry point for a distracting dive into wikipedia. Remember that this site is dedicated to English Checkers.