Draughts heroes of the 100 squares (1850-1912) Letters A - H - Volume I

It is very difficult to find photographic material of the French and Dutch draughtsmen before 1900. Fortunately, the French were wise enough to take pictures of the draughts players who participated in the tournaments of 1885, 1886, and 1899 in Amiens, so we know what the men who took part in these three tournaments looked like. It was not yet a time when the newspapers would take pictures of their local champions. Moreover, taking pictures in those years was not yet everyone's cup of tea and the newspapers were not that interested in draughts.

After 1900 we see that the number of photographs in the Netherlands increased considerably, while France clearly lagged behind. The hard work of Jack de Haas, Philip Battefeld, Constantinus Broekkamp, and Carl Vervloet clearly contributed to this, to name just a few draughts promoters. The Verenigd Amsterdamsch Damgenootschap (V.A.D.) did a lot for the promotion of draughts and the Constant draughts club in Rotterdam did not lag behind either.

However, France would come back with interesting photographic material. The 1909 World Championship held in Paris is clear evidence of this, as the photo in question shows us a large number of draughts players. In April 1911 Weiss visited the Netherlands again to play a match against Herman Hoogland, which he narrowly won 11:9. In the same month (of April) the Dutch Draughts Federation was founded. This federation was a merger of the General Dutch Draughts Federation and the National Draughts Federation. The draughts players were finally tired of the many fencing exchanges and decided to establish this federation. In 1912 the world championship for draughts was held in Rotterdam and the young Dutchman Herman Hoogland would become the world champion. These years would again provide us with quite interesting photographic material.

Now that draughts on the 100 squares all over the world is showing new federations, history is also becoming more important to many players. For this reason, I thought that it would be a good idea to put the various draughts heroes of whom we still have photographs in the spotlight by means of drawings. Some of the old photos were of poor quality, hence the illustrator had no choice but to use his imagination.

I call them draughts heroes because being a draughts player between 1885 and 1920 was not exactly easy and required many personal sacrifices.