AICS had a long and proud history. It was founded in 1960 by a Dutch player Ike C. Kisch trying to connect  the players and organize the game in the new country. In 1970 the organization got a strong boost - the New Orleans checkers club joined in and soon after its president Warren Williams became AICS only President, lasting for 35 years!

 

Much of the tribute belongs to AICS' brilliant Secretary Jack Birnman - he kept the players abreast with monthly Bulletins, ran the tournaments and kept the books.

 

Among the winners such names as Carl "Buster" Smith - the greatest American born player of all times, 9 times World Champion Iser Kuperman, Vladimir Kaplan, Alexander Mogilyansky, Igor Rybakov, Kolman Turiy, the current Straight Checkers World Champion Alex Moiseyev, just to name a few.

In 2005 hurricane "Katrina" disrupted it all, displacing most of the AICS officers, loosing equipment, hope...

But a new initiative came out of New York - an enthusiastic group of Haitian and Russian players created a new organization - ICAONA, with vision and energy surpassing the old AICS.

And so it is my privilege to pass the baton to ICAONA, with a hope and confidence they will continue our work with great success!