Grandmaster Vladimir Kaplan

A Tribute to International Grandmaster Vladmir Kaplan
January 12, 1925 - September 2000

International Grandmaster Vladimir Kaplan emigrated from the U.S.S.R in June, 1977.  Upon his arrival to the United states in the same year he became involved in Pool Checkers winning the American Pool Checkers Association Tournament that was held in July of that year in Atlanta, Georgia. He repeated this victory in the following tournaments in 1978 and 1979, ( Strive To Be Superior, pp.213).  It is said that he was a winner in all of the competition that he was involved winning over 500 games and losing only one.

While here in the United States, Mr. Kaplan wrote seven major books, The Art of American Pool Checkers, Strive To Be Superior, The Tactics of American Pool Checkers, Play Checkers and Win, American Checkers the Middle of the Game, The Key to a Success at American Checkers: Master the Middle of the Game, Tournament checkers: An introduction to Pool Checkers, many pamphlets and booklets on the theories and tactics of pool checkers that eventually became reference material for checkers players in the United States.  As a result he has been credited with raising the level of play by making these books easy accessible to the players.  Many APCA players claim to have been his students having invited him for lengthy stays in their homes to teach them theory and tactics of the game.

Mr. Charles "Pecan" Thompson, in his article, Pecan's-20 Greatest American Pool Checkers Players of All Times, listed Mr. Kaplan as the second greatest pool checkers player of all times. Click on the following hyperlink, http://www.hspccc.com/20gp/ and then on Mr. Kaplan name for further information regarding Mr. Thompson's observations.

I would like to thank Mr. Kaplan for his contributions to the game and his efforts in raising the level of play. He may be gone but in the pool checkers' arena the results of his teaching will always be there. CGooche