Don Lafferty (1933–1998) was a Grandmaster

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 ...

(British English: draughts) player. In 1982 he defeated

Derek Oldbury Derek Oldbury (1924 - July, 1994) (often known as DEO) was a British draughts champion from Devon. He was a rival of Marion Tinsley and, after Tinsley, "probably the second best player of all time." Oldbury was interested in Go As You Please (GA ...

for the World GAYP (Go as you please) championship with a score of 1-0-23. He was challenged for the championship in 1984 by Paul Davis, winning easily 5-0-15. In 1986 he defended his title again by drawing James Morrison with a score of 0-0-24 and in 1989 he defeated Elbert Lowder 4-3-16. He contested for the 3-move restriction title twice in his career but never succeeded. In 1987 he failed to defeat

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 ...

, losing by a score of 2-0-36. In 1996 he tried again, this time against Ron King, but he only managed a 5-5-30 draw. In his matches with Chinook he had 8 wins, 7 losses and 109 draws.

Personal life

He received his degree from

Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtow ...

. This served him well in his primary career as a high-school math and physics teacher until he retired in 1988.

Sources

Don Lafferty biography

Championship results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafferty, Don American checkers players Players of English draughts 1933 births 1998 deaths Western Kentucky University alumni