Charles Clendell Walker (born 1934) is a former
Mississippi state
checkers champion and
minister. He founded the
International Checker Hall of Fame in
Petal, Mississippi in 1979.[1]
Walker is also known in checkers history for his record-setting victories in simultaneous checkers matches. In a January 1992 match that lasted over eight hours, he played 229 checkers games simultaneously. He won 227 contests, lost one and tied one.[2][3] In 1994, he set a
Guinness World Record while playing 306 checkers games simultaneously and losing only one.[4][5]
Walker started playing checkers at a young age: "At age 7, his family was flooded out of its home. To pass time in the emergency shelter, he played checkers. Later he discovered his father-in-law was shy. He broke the ice by playing checkers with him on the front porch, and getting beaten."[6] The game became his lifelong passion that defined much of his life, both public and private.[7]
In the 1990s, Charles Walker helped organize and publicize several World Man-Machine Checkers Championship matches of the checkers computer called
Chinook against several human players.[8][9]
Walker was a long-term friend, admirer, and promoter of World Checkers champion
Marion Tinsley, whom Walker described as "the greatest checkers player who ever lived," and "probably the greatest who ever will live".[10]
Walker served as a Secretary of The American Checker Federation, was the Editor of Checkers Magazine[11] and also served as President of World Checker Draught Federation.[12]
Walker ran a successful insurance business and was described in the media as "an insurance millionaire"[13] and an "insurance tycoon".[14]
Walker was arrested by
ICE agents on January 7, 2005 in an undercover sting operation and charged with attempted money laundering of "$6 million in represented drug smuggling proceeds".[15] Charles Walker pleaded guilty on June 30, 2005.[15][16] His sentencing had to be postponed twice,[17] in particular because of
Hurricane Katrina, but he was sentenced to five years in prison in January 2006.[18] In January 2005, after his arrest, Walker announced that the International Checkers Hall of Fame was to be closed, and that he would resign his post as President of the World Checker Draught Federation.[19] The International Checkers Hall of Fame was kept open until Walker's sentencing, but the building was destroyed by fire on September 29, 2007.[20][21]
^NewsMakers.Archived 2012-10-13 at the
Wayback MachineLos Angeles Times. January 28, 1992. Quote from paragraph two:"Staking Out His Place: What would you do after playing 229 games of checkers simultaneously, defeating 227 contestants, losing one contest and tying one? Charles Walker claimed the title as world checker king in Petal, Miss., over the weekend and exulted: "I am going home and eat me a steak." Walker's only defeat came at the board of Marian Tinsley, 65, the mathematics professor and retired undefeated champ: "The only one who beat me was Father Time.""
^Millionaire's Monument to Game.Los Angeles Times. November 19, 1980.Quote:"Walker's fascination with checkers is apparent throughout his house and office, where checker-board tables, walls and floors are the main design theme. There is a bed canopy in the shape of a crown and a dog that is, naturally, named Checkers."
^TINSLEY GRASPS CHECKERS IMMORTALITY.Wichita Eagle. September 13, 1989. Quote: "The Checker Hall of Fame is also the creation of insurance tycoon Charles Walker, a 10-time Mississippi checker champion."