The current state of the economy affects everyone, and The Checker Maven is no exception.

We don't spoil your reading experience by publishing advertising; we will never, ever charge a subscription fee; and we neither solicit nor accept donations. Revenue from a handful of collateral products, and cross-subsidies from our parent company, the Avi Gobbler Productions Division of Mr. Fred Investments, provide us with our only sources of income. It's no surprise that with the economy as it is, our operating funds are down substantially.

So, as a cost-saving measure, we made the decision to move our Santa Fe offices half a mile or so to smaller quarters in a less expensive area. Our staff count will remain the same, and most importantly, regular Saturday publication of The Checker Maven will continue without interruption or reduction in quality or quantity of content.

This week the Checker Maven completes four years of on-time regular weekly publication, with not a single missed edition. It's yet another waypoint we never knew we'd reach, but it's a certainty that our unprecedented success is owed completely to our thousands of regular weekly readers.

While no one can say what the future will bring, it's our intention to keep on publishing for as long as we're able, and, if all goes as planned, you'll find a new edition of the Checker Maven online for your checker pleasure every Saturday morning for many years to come. Thank you one and all for your support and encouragement.

And now, in celebration, we present below a new short story starring a new character: Benny, of Newark, New Jersey, way back in the 1940s. We hope you enjoy today's checker tale.

The Checker Maven notes with great sadness the passing of legendary checkerist Richard L. Fortman, on November 8, 2008, in Springfield, Illinois, at the age of 93. Though we never met Mr. Fortman in person, we exchanged emails with him at times, and he honored us a few years back by permitting us to publish his latest Switcher analysis in our columns.

Mr. Fortman might well have been the last of the great men of the heyday of checkers. As those days have passed, so too have its champions. Mr. Fortman was a master player, analyst, and writer; but above all he was a gentleman and the best of ambassadors for our game. A man such as Mr. Fortman cannot be replaced. A page has been turned in the history book of checkers, never to be turned back again.

Marvin J. Mavin
Captain, Detroit Doublejumpers

The world of Marvin J. Mavin is featured often in the columns of The Checker Maven, and today, in this extra edition, we're providing you with all the details. How did it happen that (at least in Marvin's world) checkers became America's number one sport, eclipsing baseball and football by large margins?

At long last, you can read the full background story. Click on the link to find out about Marvin's World.

In order to serve you better, we've upgraded the software (Nucleus CMS) that we use to run our site. After a few moments of bug-fixing panic, everything now looks fine from our end, but if you experience any problems please help out by letting us know. You can reach us at webmaster@checkermaven.com.

By the way, we can't help but take this opportunity to editorialize a bit. The Checker Maven relies greatly upon free, open-source software (often abbreviated as FOSS) such as Nucleus CMS. We hope you'll join us in supporting the FOSS movement.

Our site hosting performance has gone down low, and The Checker Maven has become too slow!

For the last little while, you've probably noticed that it can take a while to surf over to The Checker Maven. This is an issue with what is properly known as page loading time, and there have been some real problems. It's cost us a lot of readers as, after waiting for a while, they decide to go elsewhere or think our site is out of service.

We've tried working with our hosting company, but frankly, they've not been helpful. We think, though, that we've worked out the nature of the problem, and have put a fix in place. We'll know over the next few days if the fix has corrected the situation.

Meanwhile, we apologize if you're having problems with our site and thank you for your patience.

Today The Checker Maven completes three years of uninterrupted, on-time publication. During that time, we have been fortunate to hold the interest and attention of thousands of readers from all around the world, who have made us what is surely the most widely-read periodical publication in the centuries-old history of the game of checkers. We're very proud of that distinction, and in return we can only wish to continue to publish and to provide Saturday-morning pleasure to all of you who are kind enough to drop by our electronic home.

During this past year, we've done less electronic book publication than we might have wished, and a new on-line feature or two didn't get completed, as we weren't able to function at full force for some months due to medical issues that required our concentrated attention. But that is all in the past, and the prospects for the year ahead look bright. Our plans include, in addition to our regular weekly columns, two e-books and a very exciting new interactive checker experience.

Thank you, one and all, for your continued support and patronage!

Hawaiian Konane Board Carved in Rock

Ed Gilbert generously sent along a copy of his 10-piece KingsRow endgame database (see previous story) for the use of The Checker Maven, and we've been having a few pleasant adventures getting it all set up and ready to use. We in turn send our thanks to Ed for supporting our ongoing work of bringing checkers to the public each and every week.

Our general policy is not to solicit donations and not to accept them if offered, as we believe that The Checker Maven should be free for everyone, and we don't want to have class distinctions between donors and non-donors. But Ed's offer was very special and very much appreciated. (We did also once accept a generous donation from Brian Hinkle, which is subsidizing a future electronic republication of a classic checker book.)

To install Ed's database, we really needed a faster and larger computer system, so, at Ed's advice, we built one from an assemblage of parts ordered from the component vendor Newegg. It took a little time and effort but our new system is running fine. We've called it Konane Kane which in Hawaiian roughly means Checker Dude. (The game Konane is sometimes called "Hawaiian Checkers.")

Here's a picture of the new system in the basement laboratory of our Santa Fe offices.

"Konane Kane" in our Santa Fe Computer Laboratory

Sometime later next year, Konane Kane will likely travel to "Hawai`i nei" and become the main computer at our Honolulu offices. In the meanwhile, we'll be using it and Ed's phenomenal database to bring you exciting new features and articles. It's a big win all around. Mahalo nui loa!

The Checker Maven offices have reopened after about three weeks of closure, during which time our weekly publication continued on an automated basis. We're glad to be back to work, and there's surely plenty to work on as we continue to prepare new articles, features, and electronic book editions. Of course, some of our projects have gotten behind schedule but we hope to make up some time over the next little while. Thank you to one and all for your continued readership.

Gerry Lopez has reminded us again that the National GAYP tourney will be held at the Plaza in Las Vegas from July 23-27, and players need to make their hotel reservations no later than the 15th of June.

Reserve now, and avoid having to find another hotel at the last minute. The reservation number is 1-800-634-6575. Make sure that you ask for the special checker rates of only $29 plus tax from Sunday through Thursday and $65 plus tax for Friday and Saturday. Tournament entrants will also be required to pay $60 to help cover the cost of the large playing room. Gerry invites you to call him with your questions at (951) 695-2499.