Courtesy of Henrietta Wildsmith - Hattiesburg American
Mississippi’s Scandalous International Checkers Titan
Charles Walker (December 11, 1934 – August 12, 2024) dedicated his life to checkers. Not the kind of checkers you might play when you’re cooped up inside on a rainy day in elementary school, but the kind of checkers that lands you in the Guiness Book of World Records.
And while we here at Inferno typically cover more “sports” than “games,” Walker deserves a spotlight for making Petal, Mississippi the hub of competitive checkers. And Walker’s type of checkers, like physical sports, requires constant drills, memorized plays, and fierce competition. And controversy— Walker ended up trying to launder $6 million USD in represented drug smuggling proceeds. Checkers can be interesting after all. But we’ll get to the money laundering part later.
Born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Walker started his checker journey as a displaced seven-year-old; his home was destroyed by a flood, and the Walkers were living in a shelter with very little to do. Even as the Walkers found a new home, Charles never stopped playing checkers. As an adult, Walker relocated to Petal, got into the insurance business, and then did quite well for himself. He married Deloris Marie Walker, raised three children, and seemed to be living a pretty typical small-town Mississippi life. Walker never left checkers behind, though, and his talent was blossoming into something uniquely forceful.
Over the course of his checkers career, Walker won over 40 Mississippi State Checker Tournaments and set world records for simultaneous play. In 1992, he played 229 games at once, winning 227. In 1994, he shattered that record by playing 306 games simultaneously, losing only one. Let me repeat: he played 306 games simultaneously, and won 305 of those games.
Walker wasn’t just a legend on the board, he also helped develop the “Man vs. Machine” era of checkers between human players and the Chinook computer program. By welcoming computer vs. human checkers matches with open arms, Walker helped usher in Chinook’s popularity. If you’ve ever gotten bored at school and played checkers against your computer, you can thank Walker for helping to popularize checkers programming.
Not content with winning championships and setting records, Walker wanted to do more for checkers as a game: He wanted to preserve checkers for future generations. In 1979, Walker founded the International Checkers Hall of Fame (ICHF) in Petal, Mississippi. The museum/hall of fame/tournament space spanned 32,000 square feet and featured two of the world’s largest checkerboards, a tournament hall, a seven-story tower, and a statue of grandmaster Marion Tinsley, whom Walker considered both a friend and a friendly rival. The ICHF became a global hub for the game, hosting World Championship matches and preserving the history of checkers in its library and collection of artifacts. In a mysterious fire, the ICHF burned down in 2007, leaving its fate uncertain. Walker’s archives, checkerboards, and the Tinsley statue were all destroyed.
A fire wasn’t Walker’s only disaster in the mid-2000s. Remember that $6 million USD I mentioned earlier? In 2005, he was arrested in a sting and later pleaded guilty to attempting to launder $6 million, allegedly using both a church that he founded and the ICHF as fronts. He was sentenced to five years in federal prison. Walker resigned his position as President of the World Checker Draught Federation and announced that the ICHF would close. The ICHF’s closure ended up being a moot point after the fire destroyed it a mere 2 years later, but Walker’s decision to close the ICHF reflected that, in many ways, Walker was the lifeblood of the ICHF.
After serving his federal prison sentence, Walker returned to Petal and reopened the ICHF. By 2011, the Hall of Fame was once again hosting national and international tournaments. In recent years, the ICHF (and Petal) welcomed top checkers players from countries such as Italy and South Africa. In light of Walker’s death, his widow Deloris is trying to keep the ICHF open. As she is reportedly in ill health, the ICHF’s fate remains uncertain. If the ICHF were to close, its closure in many ways would symbolize that Petal’s reign as global checkers leader is over. Without Walker, and without the ICHF, checkers will likely have to find a new home.
Given the highs and lows of his life, Walker’s legacy is nuanced. Walker held numerous roles in the checkers community, including President of the World Checker Draught Federation, Secretary of the American Checker Federation, and editor of Checkers Magazine. An author, he wrote a memoir, Charlie’s Time, which describes his journey from a young checkers player to an international checkers titan. He fought hard for a game that most of us don’t think about, and he singlehandedly made Mississippi the keystone of international checkers tournaments. By putting himself, and the ICHF, on the map, he opened himself up to criticism as a public figure. His conviction and time served ended with Walker pretty successfully rebuilding his life, his cherished ICHF, and his relationship with the international checkers community.
George Hay, a checkers player, probably said it best in a blog comment. After Walker’s death, Hay wrote: “Charles Walker was a long time promoter of the Grand Old Game of Checkers. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for his many years of supporting checkers, and hosting many World Championship Matches at the International Checkers Hall Of Fame located in Petal, Mississippi…RIP Charles Walker.”
