Samuel Gonotsky (born in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, 1902; emigrated to the United States, 1906; died in Hurley Hospital,

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, of pleural tuberculosis, April 5, 1929) was a leading American checkers, or

English draughts English draughts (British English) or checkers (American English), also called straight checkers or simply draughts, is a form of the strategy board game checkers (or draughts). It is played on an 8×8 checkerboard with 12 pieces per side. The ...

, player in the Two-Move Era (1863–1929). He was an important figure in the then famous Brooklyn Checker Club in the mid 1920s along with Louis Ginsburg and became the american Champion in 1924 when he defeated Alf Jordan in the national tournament. He also matched himself against a supposed automaton machine,

Ajeeb Ajeeb was a chess-playing "automaton", created by Charles Hooper (a cabinet maker), first presented at the Royal Polytechnical Institute in 1868. A particularly intriguing piece of faux mechanical technology (while presented as entirely automat ...

, owned by Hattie Elmore which he later directed in matches. Kidwell, Peggy Aldrich. "Playing Checkers with Machines—from Ajeeb to Chinook." Information & Culture 50, no. 4 (2015): 578-587. He is considered to be possibly the best "crossboard player" and the best US player of the 1920s.

References

External links

A L Lyman, ACF checkers
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20061115085954/http://nemesis.info/Gonotsky%201927%20correction.htm Murray Cash, Gonotsky's 1927 correction, nemesis.info, April 2003 {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonotsky, Sam 1902 births American checkers players Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Players of English draughts 1929 deaths 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Michigan