Draughts
A strategy board game with mandatory captures and multiple international variants.
Last updated
White, John G. (John Griswold), 1845-1928 · Public domain
Checkers, also known as draughts, is a strategy board game for two players involving forward movement of pieces and mandatory jumping captures.[1] The game developed from the earlier game Alquerque, which was played on a 5×5 grid.[2] American checkers was weakly solved in 2007, proving that perfect play from the starting position results in a draw.[3]
Making and release
The exact beginnings of checkers are not known, and while stories often link it to old Mesopotamia and Egypt, these ideas need a close look.[4] Game boards from about 3000 BCE were found in Ur, but calling them early checkers boards is not believable.[4] A more probable forerunner is Alquerque, noted as Quirkat or Al-Quirkat by the 10th-century Arab scholar Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani.[2] Crowning was already a rule by the 13th century, as recorded in Philippe Mouskés's Chronique from 1243, when the game was called Fierges.[4]
From 1300 to 1600, European draughts saw much testing, and two main types appeared: "le Jeu Forcé" with mandatory captures and "le Jeu Plaisant" where captures were not required.[5]
What the cited sources add
The TradGames account notes that Jeu Force is the game played in England today under the name of Draughts and was taken to America and called Checkers.[6] The same source states that Polish Draughts is played on a 10×10 board with 20 pieces each, where singletons can capture backwards unlike British draughts.[6] The Checkers Magazine account reports that the first written publication about checkers was released in Spanish in 1547 by Antonio de Torquemada, though no copy has survived.[7] That account also states that English mathematician William Payne defined the official rules in the book "An Introduction to the Game of Draughts" in 1756.[7]
The TradGames account describes that long jumps were invented in Spain in the 15th century and 10×10 boards first appear in Holland in a painting dated 1635.[6] The Checkers Magazine account notes that other official World Checkers Championships began in 1985 for Brazilian draughts, 1993 for Russian draughts, and 2014 for Turkish draughts.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Checkers" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Draughts / Checkers and the Alquerque Family", TradGames; Strutt, "The sports and pastimes of the people of England", 1801, p. 255 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Checkers" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Draughts, Checkers - Online Guide", www.tradgames.org.uk; Oxland, "Gameplay and design", Pearson Education, 2004, p. 333; Freeling, "The History of Draughts", mindsports.nl; Berger, "From circle and square to the image of the world: a possible interpretation or some petroglyphs of merels boards", Rock Art Research, 2004, p. 11–25; Bell, "Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations", Dover Publications, 1979, p. 47–48 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Checkers" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schaeffer, "Checkers Is Solved", Science, 2007, p. 1518–1522 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Checkers" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Oxland, "Gameplay and design", Pearson Education, 2004, p. 333 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Checkers" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Freeling, "The History of Draughts", mindsports.nl (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Draughts / Checkers and the Alquerque Family", TradGames. facts only, no text reused. tradgames.org.uk
- "The origins of draughts - from ancient to modern times Checkers Magazine Checkers.online", checkers.online. facts only, no text reused. checkers.online
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Checkers (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Checkers (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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