Duty of Memory: The Black/African Baba Sy, the best checkers player of all time, (this is the story

of a genius born in Senegal in 1936, he is known for having beaten in Germany during a simultaneous game, 150 players including great champions); « Each of us has a hidden talent deep inside us; often a combination of circumstances is enough for us to become aware of it and make it shine in broad daylight »

True to his habits, little Baba Sy was putting away the checkers pieces after the elders had finished their game. A gentleman approached the young boy and invited him to play a game of checkers. The young boy was surprised by this unusual invitation and replied that he did not know how to play. The gentleman, laughing, replied that it was very easy and offered to teach him how to play.

He had barely been explained the basics of the game when the young boy had already mastered it completely. He had understood everything in a few minutes. He played correctly and well to the point that the gentleman who had offered to teach him how to play suspected the young boy of having lied to him. No! Little Baba Sy had told him the whole truth; before that day, this young boy had never played a game of checkers. « The young boy severely beat the man who had just taught him to play several times, so much so that the latter resigned himself to giving up and began to ask the young boy for advice on the game. This is how the student surpassed the master to the point of becoming the master of the master. This is how Baba Sy discovered the game of checkers and became its grand master ».

In 1959, when Mr. Emile BISCONS (checkers player, French national master) discovered it, Baba Sy was already known and recognized as an undisputed master of the game of checkers at only 23 years old. Incredibly, at that time, he could neither read nor write but he could count. He had an almost innate mastery of numbers and a very sharp faculty of abstraction. Needless to say, he would very quickly catch up on his reading and writing in the language of Molière.

The same year (1959), Baba Sy won the first major tournament in which he participated. That year, he won the French championship in Châtellerault. In 1960, Sy, the first black African to participate in a world championship, became vice-world champion by finishing just behind the Soviet Viatcheslav Chtchogoliev. Sy was only one point behind his opponent. In 1961, Sy won the international checkers tournament in Yalta, in which the future world champion Andreiko participated, among others. In 1962, he won the World Checkers Challenge in Liège. After this victory, he was then designated as challenger to face the world champion Iser Kuperman in a match that the Soviet federation was to organize in 1963. This match was canceled. 10 years later, we learn from Iser Kuperman's statements that this match had been canceled by the Soviet federation, which was convinced that Sy would win it and did not want a black man to be world champion.

After these revelations, the Senegalese federation will begin complaints and negotiations between the Soviet, Senegalese and international federations to demand that he be rehabilitated as world champion of the year 1963. In 1986, Baba Sy is officially established posthumously as world champion 1963, a title shared with Iser Kuperman. Baba Sy is 3rd in the world checkers championship in 1964. Subsequently, many health problems including high blood pressure that prevented him from finishing games, will handicap his career and prevent him from participating in several international championships. He finished 6th in the world championship of 1972 and will catch the attention of the winner of the competition.

After these revelations, the Senegalese federation will begin complaints and negotiations between the Soviet, Senegalese and international federations to demand that he be rehabilitated as world champion of the year 1963. In 1986, Baba Sy is officially established posthumously as world champion 1963, a title shared with Iser Kuperman. Baba Sy is 3rd in the world checkers championship in 1964. Subsequently, many health problems including high blood pressure which prevented him from finishing the games, will handicap his career and prevent him from participating in several international championships. He finished 6th in the world championship of 1972 and will attract the attention of the winner of the competition.

The Dutchman Ton SIJBRANDS, who was world champion in 1972-1973 and who knew Baba SY well, dedicated a book to him entitled (The great book of Baba Sy; Voorst, 1989) in which he listed and analyzed 333 games of Baba SY, an expert work recognized by all as unique in the history of checkers. As noted by the checkers master Emile Biscons, outside of the major international tournaments, BABA SY had become a true specialist in simultaneous games where he still showed all the facets of his great art, ultra-fast victories, stunning combinations and, for the time, a record number of participants.