Checkers, called draughts in England and elsewhere, dates back to the 12th century. It is one of the world’s most common games. Checkers is a game for two players, each having 12 pieces, and is played on a square board with 64 squares (8 x 8), alternating between dark and light, identical to a chess board; international draughts (also called international checkers and Polish draughts), however, is played on a 10 x 10 board with play restricted to the 50 dark squares; each player has 20 pieces.
The game is played with the two players sitting on opposite sides of the board, their pieces occupying either the 12 dark squares in the three rows closest to them. Players alternate turns. Normally, one player’s pieces are black while the other’s may be white or red. Pieces move diagonally forwards and capture an opponent’s piece by jumping over a single piece to the unoccupied space beyond it along the diagonal; multiple jumps are allowed. In some rules, the player is required to jump (when the opponent points it out), even if it puts the jumping piece in a precarious position. When a piece reaches the opposite side of the board, it is “crowned” or “kinged” (“King me!” is often the cry) by placing a captured piece of the same color on top of it, after which the two-tier piece may move backwards or forwards along the diagonal.
For more information:
The World Draughts Federation website is http://fmjd.org/.
The English Draughts Association, founded in 1897(!), has a website at www.englishdraughts.co.uk/.
The American Checker Federation website is www.usacheckers.com/.
And if you read Dutch…
Wim van Mourik has been writing about old gameboards and the social and cultural history and iconography of draughts (draughts in paintings, drawings, etc.). His Draughts – History and Curiosity columns have appeared since 1982 in the Dutch draughts magazine of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Dam Bond, the Royal Dutch Draughts Association (KNDB); his articles appear on the last two pages of each issue.
Go to KNDB and look on the right for “Het Damspel / bondsorgaan.” The articles are in Dutch, but non-Dutch-speaking readers can find interesting photographs of checker boards.
