One Small Chess Club in Jamaica

What a fascinating read, and you present it with such a simple and direct narration, letting the story to speak for itself.

I felt compelled to read a little more about him and found a cute anecdote that happened during his Icelandic trip with Fischer:

[...]

Editor's note: There is an interesting story written by Tim Krabbé about Archie Waters' encounter with Ton Sijbrands, a world champion in draughts (checkers with 10X10 board) from the  Netherlands.

"When Sijbrands became World Champion for the first time, in 1972, he won a trip to Reykjavik, to see the World Chess Championship match between Spassky and Fischer. I hoped to find an opportunity in him to get to Fischer. Word was that Fischer was interested in draughts, and there was a little black guy from New York in his entourage, Archie Waters, who was said to be his ping pong partner, and a very strong draughts player. I could see myself and Archie Waters, envoys paving the way for a historic meeting. But when Sijbrands and Waters got together, it turned out Waters had never heard of him and also, he thought he was the World Champion--in another variant of the game. It was a moving sight to see my World Champion and this other world champion explaining their rules to each other."

[...]

I can only assume Waters was, very tongue-in-cheek, referring to his short-lived reign as Spanish Pool Checkers champion. And Tim Krabbé and the Dutch draughts champion actually believed the good old, mischievous Archie

https://www.thechessdrum.net/newsbriefs/2001/NB_Waters.html

Source:  Open Chess Diary,

https://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess2/diary_2.htm.

That's what I like to hear.

"Mate in 8" Got to love it.  Nice article!

Thanks Batgirl. Great chess history. And entertaining too.

Beauty + + +, BG....and I challenge anyone out there to a ping pong match.

I'll hazard a guess that Soltis' opponent, William L. Fredericks didn't love it too much.

Well, I can't tap dance, so my entertainment options are pretty limited.

Thanks.

I've never played ping pong...so I'd probably be an easy opponent to beat.

Blitz was called ping pong here in the old times.

Seriously?

It makes sense to me.

Well, I can't win either so they may as well be the same game. 

Lol...

Is anyone here actually from that area?

I was a member of the Jamaica CC in Queens, New York in the 1970's, Where Archie Waters ran the show. I knew him very well. His passion for chess and the members of the Jamaica CC was unsurpassed. I'll never forget that he reminded me of a Black "Columbo" in appearance and was always willing to assist new players improve their game. A young pre GM Max Dlugy was a member there and played frequently in tournaments before his talent moved him into Manhattan and the Marshall & Manhattan chess clubs. Back then the Met League was somewhat of a big deal and we always looked forward to matching our skills against other NYC Chess clubs, good memories.....

It was an excellent article. Thanks I really enjoyed it.