Participants

Andrea Peirano from Aosta (Italy), 13 years old

Andrea is mad about FRYSK! He started to play Italian Draughts at school when he was seven, and soon his instructor, Paolo Faleo, let him discover and play FRYSK! too. Since then he has won several titles: the Championships for Primary Schools (Nov 2018) in Leeuwarden, the FRYSK! Italian Youth Championships (Nov 2019) and a month later the FRYSK! Italian Championships. In March 2020 he also placed third at the FRYSK! World Championships in Franeker.

Andrea plays several kinds of draughts (Italian, English, FRYSK!) but FRYSK! is definitely his favourite. He really hopes to improve his technique in FRYSK! and Frisian Draughts and to meet the champions in Frisia.

Auke Zijlstra from Utrecht (The Netherlands), 55 years old

I was raised in the village of Blessum where I learnt to play draughts from my father. It became a serious game for me at secondary school and I have been a club player ever since. I only discovered Frisian Draughts as a serious mind sport when the WFD Foundation organised a tournament in Amersfoort. For some reason, Dutch players of International Draughts are very reluctant to try other variants of draughts. However, I won the tournament and was invited to participate in the next Fryslân Open in Franeker. I also participated in the Frisian Club Championships in the village of Easterein a few times. Very inspiring!
Both the Frisian Draughts and FRYSK! apps and lidraughts.org are a great help to learn the intricacies of Frisian Draughts. It worries me, however, to see that draughts clubs in the Netherlands are getting smaller and tend to disappear. Hopefully, the possibilities of the Internet will help to create new communities in which draughts can survive and flourish.

Bernard Kroon from Blauhús (Fryslân), 46 years old

I started to play Frisian Draughs when I was ten years old. Hiele Walinga, the father of Marten Walinga, taught Frisian Draughts in the local primary school in those years. I have been playing ever since.
It is my sincere hope that Frisian Draughts will survive for years to come. In that respect, the growing group of players all over the world is a hopeful sign. But I also hope that it soon will be possible again to organise club evenings and regional tournaments. That is a very important aspect of Frisian Draughts for me!

Cornelis Alderliesten from London (UK), 32 years old

My opinion about FRYSK!: an awesome draughts variant! Pretty complicated and full of surprises. It feels like my draughts experience using international rules is a help at times but can hinder at the same time too.

Darya Tkachenko from Ukrain, 39 years old

I usually played International Draughts on a 100-square board. I got acquainted with Frisian Draughts because Vasyl Ivanchuk began to play draughts tournaments including Frisian. People started to talk a lot so I also heard about ... It was clear to me from the beginning that the game is quite different and very dificult!

Fedde Kramer from Groningen (The Netherlands), 32 years old

He is one of the founding fathers of lidraughts.org, together with Stefan Schermann. They decided to offer the possibility of playing Frisian Draughts on that website right from the start. As a consequence, Fedde Kramer became hooked himself ...

Frederik Bos from Groningen (The Netherlands), 42 years old

I learnt Frisian Draughts from Tjalling Goedemoed when I was 16. Next, I participated twice in the Frisian Club Championships, just for fun. After that, I did not do anything about Frisian Draughts for 20 years. Lidraughts.org encouraged me to start playing again. In 2019 I took part in the Fryslân Open tournament in Franeker.
For the future, I do not really have any plans but I would love to play in a World Championships Tournament sometime.

Ilfat Karimov from Tyumen (Russia), 21 years old

I have been playing Frisian Draughts for two years now, and I really like it!

Guzel Karimova from Tyumen (Russia), 16 years old

Guzel Karimova is the sister of Ilfat Karimov (see below). Two years ago, she learnt about Frisian Draughts and FRYSK! from her brother. Guzel: ‘I like this mind sport because it is quite different from international draughts. It is really very interesting! In my opinion, this variant of the checkers and draughts family may well gain immense popularity in Russia. And maybe not only there!’

Jelle Wiersma from Wommels (Fryslân), 50 years old

Currently Frisian Champion of Frisian Draughts; twofold World Champion of FRYSK!

Kacper Białecki from Szubin (Poland), 14 years old

My name is Kacper and I am 14. I learned to play Frisian draughts on lidraughts.org. I love this game. I have been playing it for one year now. Frisian draughts was created 400 years ago in Fryslân. I hope that more and more people will start playing Frisian Draughts because it is a beautiful sport.

Kanstantsin Nord, Minsk (Belarus), 22 years old

I got acquainted with Frisian draughts in 2016, played a few games with the app and that’s it. In August 2019, I was told that Frisian draughts can be played with other players at lidraughts.org and I started playing. At first, I played more FRYSK!, because it is easier than playing with a full set and the Frisian Draughts Federation began to hold tournaments in this particular type in the autumn of 2019. It was good for me and for all those who have not played in face-to-face Frisian draughts tournaments, because now we had the opportunity to play against strong opponents and, on the basis of these games, evaluate our level of play. For example, based on these tournaments, I realised that I can play well against strong players in FRYSK! and therefore decided to come to the face-to-face tournament in 2020 in Franeker. I didn’t so strong at playing Frisian draughts with a full set, so I did not expect to play well. But in Franeker it went better than expected and I managed to show a good result in classic Frisian draughts. Of course, I often found myself in losing positions, but, as the saying goes, beginners are lucky.

In my opinion, Frisian draughts is an interesting game with many combination ideas. To some extent, a difficult tactical game is compensated by a relatively simple strategy, but it is still a sharp game in which one careless move can quickly lead to a loss. The complexity of the game is evident as it is not always possible to get a draw even in FRYSK!, a simplified version of Frisian draughts. I would like to wish that as many new players as possible are excited as I am, thanks to this beautiful game.

Porter Richardson from Monster (The Netherlands)

A friend of mine taught me Frisian draughts two years ago and then I started to play it online as well. This brought me in contact with FRYSK! I am also a member of the draughts Club in Monster (MDV). Last month I took part in my first Dutch Championships Draughts, in the junior category. This was held in Monster, where I live. I finished 13th. Regarding the future for Frisian Draughts, I just think it is a really fun game that I enjoy playing. I would like to become really good at draughts but also at FRYSK! and Frisian Draughts. This is why I like to play games and take part in tournaments.

Michael Semianiuk from Minsk (Belarus), 21 years old

I started playing Frisian draughts (on 64 squares!) a couple of years ago as it helped me to relax whilst training. I liked the game, and I started playing on lidraughts.org a few months ago.

René Emmaneel, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

Honestly, I have never really played Frisian Draughts, but I started playing it online the last few weeks. I like that it's more tactical than International Draughts and am excited to get better at it in the future.

Sergej Korchitskij from Minsk (Belarus), 45 years old

He is a very strong Shogi (xiangqi, Japanese chess) player, and discovered Frisian Draughts in 2018, when he participated in the Fryslân Open tournament. He states: ‘I appreciate the efforts to promote Frisian Draughts, a very old, logical game that is new to most of the world!’

Ties Slagter from ’s-Hertogenbosch (The Netherlands), 69 years old

The World Championships in 2018 caught my attention and I keenly followed it. My proper introduction to the Frisian game came during Corona when I started to take part in tournaments for this type of game and became fairly familiar with it, with lots of ups and downs! In future I hope to participate in tournaments in person, to develop my skills of this game further.

Zhuoyuan Du from Shanghai (China), 13 years old

Zhuoyuan began to play Frisian and FRYSK! in lidraughts.org about a year and half ago. Just as he mentioned in his lidraughts profile, he likes every variant of draughts, especially Frisian. He has been playing international draughts now for about five years. Thanks to lidraughts, he found Frisian draughts interesting and became obsessed with it.