11-Man Ballot 2026 WTM - Archdale, NC   

“World and European Championship Match”

November 9th through 13th, 2026

"World 11-Man Ballot Match" between 11-Man World Champion Alexander Moiseyev and challenger Crispin “Goj” Ojwang

GM Alexander Moiseyev is from Dublin, Ohio and challenger Crispin “Goj” Ojwang is from Makadara, Kenya

  The 16-game match will be held on 11/9 thru 11/13,2026 at the Quality Inn - Archdale, NC
NCCA will host this event with Kim Willis as referee

GM.NC008@choicehotels.com

The 11-Man Ballot Checker Openings was authored by Newell Banks in 1907 who designed the 11-Man Deck & System to expand the depth and scope of the opening checker game. At this time it was unrestricted "GAYP" and "2-Move".  This variation or style of opening which removes a man from each side and makes a ballot move for each side seriously forces the player to rely on cross-board visualization in stead of memorized lines of play, plus the sheer number of openings available makes it impossible to memorize the openings as stated by Grandmasters like: Marion Tinsley, Elbert Lowder, Alexander Moiseyev. A comment from Dr. Tinsley is, "The 11-Man ballot cards create openings and landings that you would never get from the GAYP or 3-Move Openings, you might funnel a mid-game into something, such as a familiar endgame position or ending; otherwise, it's all cross-board visualization; however, there are a few 3-move openings and gayp transpositions in the deck." Elbert Lowder who favored 11-Man above other variants said, "It takes the game into new and unfamiliar territory nothing like the "Classic GAYP" or "3-Move" though there are a couple of these in the deck." "This should become the Professional Accomplished Player's 1st Choice."  "Cross-board Player's Professional Choice"  In September 2019, Ed Gilbert's definitive analysis of all 2,500 11-Man ballot openings significantly advanced this variation.  Ed Gilbert and his "Kingsrow" checkers program undertook the massive effort to remove all unsound or untenable "losing" openings from the deck, reducing the list to 2,253 playable "proven draw" openings.  We appreciate and acknowledge gratitude to Ed's timely effort, and talent to solve this mammoth task needed to improve 11-Man Checkers.  I recall in past WTM where both contestants agree unknowingly that the opening was playable but both lost their weak side drawing the round. I also witnessed Alex Moiseyev and Tim Laverty unknowingly agreed to playing an unsound opening and Alex Moiseyev won both sides. This allows players to draw or have the 11-Man Random Generator select their verified draw opening.  No more rules are required to regulate overwhelming agreement by the contestants to play an opening. Some of the duties of the referee is to make sure the opening is correctly positioned on the checkerboard.  If the players decide to draw the opening from the deck, the referee should know how to handle the "quirky move" and modifying that move when that checker has already been removed. The referee also should be set up to verify the opening against the 2,500 list because the deck may give the description of the opening as a transposition which may not show up in the 2,253 list but this is what you need to verify the opening, for example there are 36 ballots that have 4 ways to form the position, a total of 636 transpositions. This happen on the 4th game in 2024 Moiseyev vs A. Holmes WTM. {Remove 12 and 24; 11-16, 22-17} First you find the position in the large file to get Opening # or FEN and then check it against Ed Gilbert's list.  Another way is to enter the position into Martin Fierz's CheckerBoard platform with edit/setup, then edit/ FEN to clipboard, paste it in the find block to see if opening is playable. I can not emphasize enough how Fierz & Gilbert have contributed to checkers with CheckerBoard, their engines, "Cake" & "Kingsrow" many many competitive sparring matches, analysis, and their collaboration to improving our checker game. Look at the 11-Man Time Line and see how this variant has evolved and improved. I re-read with interest Ed Gilbert's 11-Man Ballot analysis and his article on Checker Maven about the 11-Man opening book that contains 1.1M positions and has play for all 2,500 ballots.  There is almost no overlap with GAYP and 3-move which substantuate out some of the above comments  Ed rated the 2,253 draw openings and one particular opening #2,493 is a seriously strong white advantage leaving you overwhelmed with mind-boggling efforts it takes to draw if white perfectly & correctly attacks red it take the first 20 consecutive OMTD moves to save the draw game.  I know of longer games but nothing comes this close to difficult!  Hopefully we can raise $7-10K for the prize fund. This will dignity and add prestige to our 11-Man Ballot WTM which it deserves and especially raise respect and interest for this 11-Man Ballot opening style of checkers.. Please make your check to NCCA and mail it to:  North Carolina Checker Association, POB 39594, Greensboro, NC 27438-9594 | 336-209-5656