Newell William Banks was an American checkers

Draughts

Draughts is a group of abstract strategy board games between two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over the enemy's pieces. Draughts developed from alquerque...

 and chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 player. Banks played his first game of blindfold checkers at age five years and six months at the Detroit Chess and Checker Club.In 1909, according to Frank Leslies's Weekly, he defeated Hugh Henderson for the national championship. In 1947, at age 60, for 45 consecutive days (4 hr per day) Banks played 1387 blindfold checker games, winning 1331 games, drawing 54 and losing only two, while playing six games at a time. He also set a new blindfold speed record playing 62 games in four hours, winning 61 and 1 drawn at the Convention Hall, Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

. Banks also played chess and is counted among the few players who have mastered both games. In the Master's Invitational Chess Tournament in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, 1926, Banks defeated Isaac Kashdan

Isaac Kashdan

Isaac Kashdan was an American chess grandmaster and chess writer. Kashdan was one of the world's best players in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was twice U.S. Open champion...

 and U.S. Chess Champion

U.S. Chess Championship

The U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational tournament held to determine the national chess champion of the United States. Since 1936, it has been held under the auspices of the U.S. Chess Federation. Until 1999, the event consisted of a round-robin tournament of varying size...

 Frank Marshall, and drew

Draw (chess)

In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...

 with former champion Jackson Showalter

Jackson Showalter

Jackson Whipps Showalter was a five-time U.S. Chess Champion: 1890, 1892, 1892–1894, 1895-1896 and 1906–1909.-Chess career:...

, Samuel Factor

Samuel Factor

Samuel Factor was a Polish-American chess master.-Biography:During World War I, Faktor was one of the strongest chess players in Łódź . In 1916, he lost a match to Hirszbajn . In 1917, he took 3rd, behind Gersz Salwe, and Teodor Regedziński. In 1917/18, he took 2nd, behind Regedziński...

, and Oscar Chajes

Oscar Chajes

Oscar Chajes was an Austrian, then American chess player.-Biography:Chajes was Jewish and was born in Brody, Galicia, in what is now Ukraine. In 1909, he won in Excelsior, Minnesota . In 1910, he took 2nd in Chicago. In January/February 1911, he tied for 3rd-4th in New York...

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