Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 101, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1909 — Denvir Defeated All the Local Checker Lights. [ARTICLE]

Denvir Defeated All the Local Checker Lights.

John T. Denvir, of Chicago, arrived here Saturday evening and met some two dozen checker players at the armory that night and a number of others Sunday. He played an even dozen at one time Saturday night, and in the * Jrst contest won all but one game and drew it. The successful contestant was George Scott, who has only recently come into the limelight as a red and black manipulator. He brought things down to a four to four basis and Mr. Denvir admitted it a draw. In the next. contest Jas. H. Chapman and Geo. H. Healey each got draws, and as, they are both novices in the game they were mighty lucky. J. A. McFarland, E. M. Thomas, Sam Stephens, Frank Hill and some of the other cracks were in the meantime receiving a pair of defeats. The next day some of the others succeeded in getting draws but Mr. Denvir was winning about 98 per cent of his games and did not lose a single one. He is a very pleasant gentleman and has played checkers ever since he was a boy. He draws some practical lessons from the checker board and in a talk to the players and the fans present he said that the person who could not concentrate his mind on his business and watch every detail of it, could not expect to succeed any more than a careless checker player could expect to win at checkers. He instructed the local players in some means of fortification and left them in good spirits notwithstanding the successive drubbings he gave them. He promised to write the visit up in the Chicago Inter-Ocean, he being the Checker editor of that paper, and the fanciers of the game here are anxious to see what he has to say.