He started at age 10 and at 14 was the champion of "Seine draughts club." At eighteen he became Draughts World Championship, which made him the youngest world champion at International draughts up to that point in history and one of the youngest ever. Hence he was sometimes referred to as "The Mozart of the Checkerboard."A biography from the Lyons Draughts group (In French) He retained the title until 1938. During World War II he served the French army as a naturalized citizen. After France's defeat he went to the South of France and became a smuggler. His being Jewish was not known at this time and may have spared him a worse fate from the Nazis.
