Woldouby

2015 (First edition)
Govert Westerveld
Woldouby's Biography, Extraordinary Senegalese Checkers player during his stay in France
1910-1911

                            
                  

Prologue 

Every checkers player knows about Woldouby's famous position. This 21 year-old Senegalese drew a lot of attention in Paris in 1910 when he won against all challengers in his store located in the Senegalese village of the Exposition of Jardin d'Acclimatation zoologique.  

   No one understood how this player could win all the games that fast. After Amadou Kandie Woldouby was the second African who participated in a checkers tournament in Paris since he became the city champion in 1911. Our famous checkers player was from Saint-Louis and had come to Europe with a group of peasants to attend the Exhibition of the Senegalese village in France.   

   In 1911 he left France and no one knew his whereabouts since then. In this biography we show that Weiss' golpe actually was Woldouby's golpe, since he won against Isidore Weiss with it. On the other hand we want to show that Woldouby returned to Senegal in 1911 to take the place of a checkers runner-up in 1913.   

His biography deserves a worthy place in the history of checkers, as he was the prominent predecessor of the famous Senegalese checkers player Baba Sy. 

Govert Westerveld