Marion Franklin Tinsley (February 3, 1927 – April 3, 1995) was an American mathematician and checkers player. He is considered to be the greatest checkers player who ever lived. Tinsley was world champion 1955–1958 and 1975–1991 and never lost a world championship match, and lost only seven games (two of them to the Chinook computer program, one of them drunk, one of them in a simultaneous exhibition) from 1950 until his death in 1995. He withdrew from championship play during the years 1958–1975, relinquishing the title during that time. Derek Oldbury, sometimes considered the second-best player of all time, thought that Tinsley was "to checkers what Leonardo da Vinci was to science, what Michelangelo was to art and what Beethoven was to music." Early life and education Tinsley was born in Ironton, Ohio, but spent his early life in Greenup County. Tinsley was the son of a school teacher and a farmer who became a sheriff. He had a sister and "felt unloved" by his parents. To gain the affection of his parents, he competed in math and spelling bees as a child. He said of his parents' disapproval: "And as a twig is bent, it grows: As I grew up, I still kept feeling that way." He skipped four of his first eight grades. He graduated from a Columbus high school at fifteen. Tinsley had a doctorate from Ohio State University in the mathematical discipline of combinatorial analysis. He worked as a professor of mathematics at Florida State University and Florida A&M University. Tinsley once claimed to have spent approximately 10,000 hours studying checkers while in graduate school. Tinsley also served as a lay preacher in the Disciples of Christ church. Checkers career After reading a book by Millard Hopper, he became interested in the game. He enlisted in the Navy in 1945 and was stationed at Gulfport, Mississippi, where he won the Southern Louisiana Open. In 1946, he finished second behind William F. Ryan at the Newark National Tourney, losing the finals 2-1-11. Tinsley won four Ohio State Opens (1946, 1947, 1948, 1949), six Cedar Point Tourneys (1946, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952), and two Canadian Opens(1949, 1950). Tinsley was an 8-time three-move world champion(1954, 1955, 1958, 1979, 1981, 1985, 1987, 1989) and once in two-move checkers(1952). 1951-1995 tournament record, excluding the Chinook games: Chinook games Tinsley retired from championship play in 1991. In August 1992, he defeated the