Marion Tinsley died on April 3, 1995, at the age of 68. Why does the death of this checkers ( 8 x 8 draughts) player attract our attention? His record speaks for itself:

Since an accidental loss in the 1950 U.S. Championship, Tinsley finished in undivided first place in every tournament that he played in, except the last (in the 1994 U.S. Championship, he tied for first place with the computer program Chinook and Don Lafferty). He contested nine World Championship matches, winning each usually by an embarrassingly large margin. Over the last fortyfive years of his life, comprising thousands of tournament, World Championship, match, exhibition and casual games, Tinsley lost the unbelievable number of seven games. Seven games!? In forty-five years? This is as close to perfection as is humanly possible.

Tinsley once remarked that he had become bored playing humans; there wasn't any challenge left. When he was young, he began to acquire the reputation of being unbeatable. For forty-five years, most of his opponents would play for the draw; going for a win was unthinkable. Tinsley's enjoyment of checkers waned, and at one point he retired from the game for twelve years because of a lack of competition.

When the program Chinook came on the scene, Tinsley relished the opportunity to play it. Chinook had no respect for Tinsley's abilities, willingly taking risks: anything to increase the chances of winning. Tinsley said that playing Chinook made him feel like a young man again. In 1990, Chinook earned the right to play Tinsley for the (human) World Checkers Championship.