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Carl "Buster" Smith

American checkers player

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 1, 2025
Entity authorityQ2153286 ↗
Source-derived summary

Carl Sylvester "Buster" Smith (January 26, 1921 – October 8, 1992) was an eleven-time "Top Master" in the American Pool Checkers Association Division Championship. He won the Top Master title in 1967, 1970, 1972–76, 1982–83, 1991, and 1992, and Master in 1968 and 1969.

Early life and career

Smith attended Wendell Phillips High School. He served in Okinawa during World War II.

He began playing in his native Chicago and was citywide champion by 17. He remained Chicago's best player until his death in 1992. He did not play for money, instead making his living working at the post office.

In 1968, 1972, 1976, and 1978, Smith participated in the World Championships for the international draughts variant. His highest placement was 5th in 1976.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Carl "Buster" Smith” is american checkers player. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Carl, Buster and Smith, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1921, 1992, 1967, 1970—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1921-01-26. For this dossier, Carl, Buster and Smith is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american checkers player” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 1, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2153286. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1921, 1992, 1967 and 1970.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Carl "Buster" Smith”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Carl "Buster" Smith primary sources, Carl "Buster" Smith archive and Carl research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Carl "Buster" Smith”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Carl "Buster" Smith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.