Asa Long (19041999) was an American

checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

player, winner of multiple US Championships, spanning more than sixty years, and a one-time World Champion.

Checkers champion

Asa A. Long was born in

Antwerp, Ohio Antwerp is a village in Paulding County, Ohio, United States, along the Maumee River. Antwerp is home of the Antwerp Archers. The population was 1,736 at the 2010 census. Antwerp is the nearest village to the Six Mile Reservoir, the site of the ...

in 1904. As a child he learned the game of checkers when the family moved to Toledo. At 16, Long won the state tournament and at 18 he became the youngest person to ever win the US national championship. In the 1920s, Long began to devoting himself to studying the game in more depth as he had in essence been a remarkable amateur. It is said he clocked 55,000 hours in the study of checkers. After that, Long would go on to win the world title in 1934. He became less active in the mid-1940s and in 1948 lost to

Walter Hellman Walter F. Hellman (June 15, 1916 – July 28, 1975) was the longest reigning world American checkers champion. Background Walter Oskar Fredrik Hellman was born in Gamla Nordsjö, Nordmaling, Sweden. His family moved to Gary, Indiana, United Sta ...

, a player from

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

whom he had beaten before. In the 1970s Long's involvement revived and in 1984 he became the oldest person to win the US championship in a surprise victory. This gave him the record as both youngest and oldest national champion. In 1992, Long played his last important match, which was against the Chinook computer. Before that he had mentored

Marion Tinsley Marion Franklin Tinsley (February 3, 1927 – April 3, 1995) was an American mathematician and checkers player. He is considered to be the greatest checkers player who ever lived. Tinsley was world champion 1955–1958 and 1975–1991 and never lo ...

who would later defeat Long with consistency and be widely deemed the greatest player in the history of the game. Asa Long was a grandmaster for 70 years in total.

Personal life

In 1929, Long married Isabel who died in 1979. He had two surviving sons with her and also had grandchildren. Long credited his inner calm to his Christian faith. He lived in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

for most of his life.

External links

Reprint of an article in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''

Profile of Asa Long by Richard Fortman

Another profile of Asa Long * {{DEFAULTSORT:Long, Asa 1904 births 1999 deaths American checkers players Players of English draughts People from Toledo, Ohio