Lubabalo Kondlo

Lubabalo Nicholas Kondlo (born December 21, 1971)[1] is a grandmaster of English draughts (also known as American checkers) from South Africa. He is the current world champion in the GAYP (go as you please) version.

Born in New Brigton, Port Elizabeth, Kondlo started to play draughts at the age of seven years.[2] In 2007, he won the World Qualifier in Las Vegas, United States and became the first draughts grandmaster from Africa.[2][3]

His match against Ron King in 2008 for the world champion title in the GAYP version was the subject of the documentary King Me.[4][5] In 2012 he won the silver medal, the gold being won by Alex Moiseyev, in American checkers at the SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing, China.[6] Kondlo won the 2014 World Qualifying 3-Move Tournament in Clarksville, Indiana, U.S. edging out Sergio Scarpetta on head-to-head tie-breaker. Thanks to this victory, he earned the right to challenge Michele Borghetti in the world championship match in the 3-move version.[7] The match took place in 2015 in Livorno, Italy and was won by Borghetti.[8] In 2018, in Petal, Mississippi, US Kondlo won the world title match in the GAYP version against defending champion Borghetti.[9] Kondlo is the first world draughts champion from Africa.[2]

Test Matches

Although there have not been nearly enough international test matches between countries, Lubabalo has played in:

YearPlayedCountry playedResultVenue
2001Hugh Devlin IrelandlostOld Edwardian Society, Lower Houghton, Johannesburg

References
  1. "Athletes / KONDLO Lubabalo Nicholas". worldmindgames2014.sportresult.com. Archived from the original on 2017-07-29. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  2. Khan, Jauhara (2018-11-01). "Lubabalo is Africa's first world Draughts champion". www.vukuzenzele.gov.za. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
  3. Sibiya, Silver (2018-10-20). "Kondlo, our very own grandmaster of mind games". CityPress. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
  4. "King Me". Cleveland International Film Festival. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
  5. King Me (2010) on IMDb
  6. "Kondlo wins silver in checkers". Sport24. 2012-12-19. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
  7. 2014 WQT Official Standings. North Carolina Checker Association.
  8. The American Checker Federation
  9. Agosti, Riccardo. "Il sudafricano Lubabalo Kondlo รจ il nuovo campione mondiale checkers GAYP". www.federdama.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2018-10-19.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.