Apparently, the Go-As-You-Please crown isn’t enough.
The very best of world draughts might be here in the country next year for one tournament as the Barbados Draughts Association is bidding to host the World Qualification Tournament for the Go-As-You-Please title.
World champ and long-time Go-As-You-Please title-holder Ronald “Suki” King revealed that the association has its eye on holding the tournament in either September or October with the primary focus of developing the sport in Barbados.
“We’re counting on having this tournament so we can seriously push draughts in Barbados because it has fallen by the wayside over the years,” King explained in an interview with WEEKEND SPORT.
“But it’s not just promotion, though, because nothing will be better than to win it all here at home in front of our fans. I mean, if dominoes can win it all, then why can’t we?”
“We want to have a clean sweep too because Go-As-You-Please is our thing, but we really need to prepare some ladies to come out and help promote draughts because we have only three women playing competitively right now,” King added.
The World Qualifier serves as the official selection process for the challenger to the Go-As-You-Please crown, as the winner of the tournament automatically advances to play “Suki” in the title match.
The bidding process for the qualifier is scheduled to start on Saturday and the Barbados Draughts Association will look to win the bid by proposing to stage a draughts festival, in celebration of King’s achievements, that will coincide with the qualifier.
Secretary Dennis Ward said that festival would feature a 100-square international tournament as well as a 64-square competition, both being played around the same time as the qualifier – the first time that all three formats of the sport would take place simultaneously.
If successful with the bid, the association would need at least $250 000 to stage the event, Ward said.
He added that he expects the World Qualifier and the festival to attract more than 200 players from 77 countries.
King is also expected to participate at next month’s Mind Sport Olympics in Beijing, where he will further promote Barbados’ hosting bid.
The 56-year-old King has won 12 World Championship titles and also made it into the Guinness World Records in 1998 for playing and beating 385 players simultaneously.
