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| Subject: James Searles, 90, a Master of Lightning-Fast Checkers | |
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Date Posted: October 15, 2002 1:10:05 EDT In reply to: Michelle 's message, "Recent obituaries you might have missed seeing elsewhere" on October 15, 2002 1:00:40 EDT James Searles, who elevated the lightning-fast form of checkers played mainly by black men in barbershops, parks and sidewalks to the province of an exclusive if distinctly clamorous society — the Brooklyn Elite Pool Checker Club — died in Brooklyn on Oct. 5. He was 90. A retired warehouse worker, he lived in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. Mr. Searles, who was known by the nickname Step, and friends with names like Ghost, Tijuana and The Mighty Claw could not stay away from the club on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. They lived for the clack-clack, the resounding exclamations of victory and, not least, the odd side bet. They lived, mainly, for one another. "Checker players is really a brotherhood — like family," Mr. Searles said in an oral history included in "Holding On," a book about eccentric Americans by David Isay (Norton, 1995). "If there's a sickness in one of the guys' family, we raise money," he continued. "If a guy gets unemployed, another guy will pay his dues. We look out for each other. I don't know no other group of people who do that." But the game mattered, mightily, and Mr. Searles set the club's objectives high. The constitution he drafted in 1972 pledged "to elevate checkers to a level of respect equal to or greater than that of any other national or international pastime." He personally never needed persuasion about the greatness of pool checkers, as the game is known in the United States. He missed the boat for a Jamaican honeymoon cruise with his bride 50 years ago because he was wrapped up in a game. "They had a cash prize," he said in an interview with The New York Times in 1991. "That calmed her down a little bit." Pool checkers differs from the checkers most people know. One difference is that single pieces can jump forward or backward diagonally. Another is that when a piece reaches the other side and is crowned, it becomes a king that can jump over more than one open square, even turning in midjump. Mr. Searles estimated that 95 percent of black people play pool checkers. And, he said, in Russia, Eastern Europe and other European countries, people play a form of the game much closer to his. The fame of one Russian checkers champion, Vladimir Kaplan, preceded his emigration from the Soviet Union. Mr. Searles and other members of his club, one of whom spoke some Russian, met Mr. Kaplan at the airport, spirited him to their clubhouse and offered to pay his way to the national championships in Atlanta. He won. Bobby Fischer, then a young chess grandmaster from Brooklyn, dropped by the club in the mid-1970's. Mr. Searles said Mr. Fischer had pronounced pool checkers a hard game that gave him a headache to watch. James William Searles was born in Philadelphia on March 1, 1912, and played his first game in a park there. "Naturally I lost the first time, and I got beat so bad that I just couldn't give it up," he said in the oral history. He improved, partly by playing with other people on public works projects during the Depression. He said he "would shovel some dirt, and then move some checkers." In Philadelphia, he worked as a bellhop at the Douglas Hotel, which catered to black guests. There was a checkerboard in the hotel lobby where he said he played almost everyone in Duke Ellington's band. He had some great games with Count Basie, and beat the comedian Moms Mabley, though she complained he took too long to move. Mr. Searles worked in New York as a longshoreman and became a regular player in games at Mount Morris Park in Harlem. He played in barbershops (a custom reflected in the movie "Barbershop," with Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer). After a shop closed for the day, players would move the game to the sidewalk. Mr. Searles said he organized the club because he was ashamed that there was no regular place to play. He found a place on Fulton Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, for $125 a month. When the landlord raised the rent, the club scraped together $5,000 to buy another place down the street. That building was accidentally destroyed by workers demolishing a building next door. They had no place to go for more than a decade, until the Salvation Army began to let them play regularly in their library in Fort Greene in 1989. Mr. Searles is survived by his wife, Delores; his daughter, Sadie; and three grandchildren, all of Brooklyn. Two hundred members of his club also survive him. In the interview with The Times, Mr. Searles recalled a phone conversation in which he told the wife of one club member that playing checkers helped keep a married man out of trouble. "Mrs. So-and-So, if you got a husband playing checkers, you got nothing to worry about, because he's not drinking, gambling or running around with women," he patiently told her. "But checkers can't do what I can do for him," she replied slyly. Speechless, he hung up. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| Subject | Author | Date |
| Jacques Richard, 50, Who Played in the N.H.L. | - | October 15, 2002 1:12:34 EDT |
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