Samuel Gonotsky (born in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

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

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, of pleural

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

, April 5, 1929) was a leading American checkers, or

English draughts 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 pieces m ...

, 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 piece of faux mechanical technology (while presented as entirely automated, it in fact conceale ...

, 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