European Draughts - Chequers




Starting position on a 10×10 draughts board
Genre(s) Board game
Abstract strategy game
Skill(s) required Strategy, tactics
Synonym(s) Checkers

Draughts (pron.:/ˈdrɑːfts/ , British English) or checkers (American English) is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Draughts developed from alquerque. The name derives from the verb to draw or to move. The most popular forms are international draughts, played on a 10×10 board, and English draughts, also called American checkers, played on an 8×8 checkerboard, but there are many other variants including some played on a 12×12 board.

General rules

A game in international draughts

Draughts (or checkers) is played by two opponents, on opposite sides of the gameboard. One player has the dark pieces, and the other has the light pieces. The players alternate move turns. It is against the rules to move one of the opponent's pieces. The player with the light pieces moves first unless stated otherwise. A move consists of moving a piece diagonally to an adjacent unoccupied square. If the adjacent square contains an opponent piece, it may be captured (and removed from the game) by jumping over it to the unoccupied square immediately beyond it.

Only the dark squares of the checkered board are used. A piece may move only diagonally into an unoccupied square. Capturing is mandatory in most official rules, although some rule variations make capturing optional when presented. In most all variants, the player without pieces remaining, or who cannot move due to being blocked, loses the game.

Uncrowned pieces (men) move one step diagonally, and (may) capture opponents' pieces by moving two consecutive steps in the same direction, jumping over the opponent's piece on the first step. Multiple opposing pieces may be captured in a single turn provided this is done by successive jumps made by a single piece; these jumps do not need to be in the same direction but may zigzag changing diagonal direction. In English draughts men can capture only forward, but in international draughts they may also capture (diagonally) backwards.

When a man reaches the crownhead or kings row (the farthest row forward), it becomes a king, and is marked by placing an additional piece on top of the first man, and acquires additional powers including the ability to move backwards (and capture backwards, in variants in which they cannot already do so). As with non-king men, a king may make successive jumps in a single turn provided that each jump captures an opponent man or king.

In international draughts, with the flying kings rule kings can move as far as they want along unblocked diagonals. This move can (but need not) end by a capture in the usual way, jumping over an opposing piece to an adjacent unoccupied square. Since captured pieces remain on the board until the turn is complete, with flying kings it is possible for a king to reach a position where he is blocked from moving further by a piece he has just captured.

Flying kings are not used in English draughts, in which a king's only advantage over a man is the ability to move and capture backwards as well as forwards.

Naming

In most non-English languages (except those that acquired the game from English speakers), draughts is called dame, dames, damas, or a similar term that refers to ladies. Men are usually called stones, pieces, or some similar term that does not imply a gender; men promoted to kings are called dames or ladies instead. In these languages, the queen in chess or in card games is usually called by the same term as the kings in draughts. A case in point includes the Greek terminology, in which draughts is called "ντάμα" (dama), which is also one term for the queen in chess (the men are known as "pawns").

National and regional variants

Long-range kings; men can capture backwards (International draughts/American pool checkers family)

National variant

 Board size

 Pieces per side

 Double-corner or light square on player's near-right?

 Who moves first?

 Capture constraints

 Notes
International draughts (or Polish draughts)

 10×10

 20

 yes

 White

 A sequence must capture the maximum possible number of pieces.

 Pieces only promote when they land on the final rank, not when they pass through it. It is mainly played in the Netherlands, Suriname, France, Belgium, some eastern European countries, some parts of Africa, some parts of the former USSR, and other European countries
Frisian draughts

 10×10

 20

 yes

 White

 A sequence of capture must give the maximum "value" to the capture, and a king (called a wolf) has a value of less than two men but more than one man. If a sequence with a capturing wolf and a sequence with a capturing man have the same value, the wolf must capture. The main difference with the other games is that the captures can be made diagonally, but also straight forward and sideways.

 Played in Netherlands.
Pool checkers

 8×8

 12

 yes

 Black

 Any sequence may be chosen, as long as all possible captures are made.

 Also called Spanish Pool Checkers. It is mainly played in the southeastern United States; traditional among African American players. A man reaching the kings row is promoted only if he does not have additional backwards jumps (as in international draughts).

In many games at the end one adversary has three kings while the other one has just one king. In such a case the first adversary must win in thirteen moves or the game is declared a draw.
Russian checkers

 8×8

 12

 yes

 White

 Any sequence may be chosen, as long as all possible captures are made.

 Also called shashki or Russian shashki checkers. If a man touches the kings row during a jump, and it can continue to jump backwards, it jumps backwards as a king, not as a man. It is mainly played in some parts of Russia, some parts of the former USSR, and Israel (by Russian Jews). In many game endings the opponents have 3 and 1 kings respectively. In this case the first opponent normally wins if (s)he occupies the longest diagonal line and then builds the so-called Petrov's triangle. Two variants exist: the 10x8 variant (2 additional columns, labelled 'i' and 'k'), and the give-away variant poddavki. There are official championships for shashki and its variants.

Long-range kings; men cannot capture backwards (Spanish draughts family)

National variant

 Board size

 Pieces per side

 Double-corner or light square on player's near-right?

 Who moves first?

 Capture constraints

 Notes
Spanish draughts

 8×8

 12

 Light square is on right, but double corner is on left, as play is on the light squares. (Play on the dark squares with dark square on right is Portuguese draughts.)

 White

 A sequence must capture the maximum possible number of pieces, and the maximum possible number of kings from all such sequences.

 Also called Spanish checkers. It is mainly played in Portugal and in some parts of South America and some Northern African countries.
Czech draughts

 8×8

 12

White

 If there are sequences of captures with a man and other ones with a king, it is necessary to capture with a king. After that, any sequence may be chosen, as long as all possible captures are made in the chosen sequence.

 This variant is from the family of the Spanish game.
Hungarian Highlander (Slovak?) draughts

 8x8

 8

White

 All pieces are long - range. Skipping is mandatory after fist move of the rook. Any sequence may be chosen, as long as all possible captures are made.

 Symbol uppermost of the cube determines its value, which is decreased after skiping it. Less than three

pieces loses a games.
German draughts "Dame"

 8×8

 12

White

 Any sequence may be chosen, as long as all possible captures are made.

 Kings stop on the field directly behind the piece captured and must continue capturing from there as long as they can.
Turkish draughts

 8×8

 16

 yes

 White

 A sequence must capture the maximum possible number of pieces.

 In this game type (also known as Dama), all 64 board cells are used, dark and light. Men move straight forward or sideways, instead of diagonally. When a man reaches the last row, it is promoted to a flying king (Dama), which moves like a rook (or a queen in Armenian variant). The pieces are placed on the second and third rows. It is played in Turkey, Kuwait, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Greece and several other locations in the Middle-East, as well as the same locations as Russian checkers. There are several variants in these countries, with the Armenian variant (called tama) also allowing forward-diagonal movement for men.

No long-range kings; men cannot capture backwards (English draughts/American straight checkers family)

National variant

 Board size

 Pieces per side

 Double-corner or light square on player's near-right?

 Who moves first?

 Capture constraints

 Notes
English draughts

 8×8

 12

 yes

 Black

 Any sequence may be chosen, as long as all possible captures are made.

 Also called "straight checkers" or American checkers, since it is also played in the USA.
Italian draughts

 8×8

 12

 no

 White

 If multiple capture sequences are available, one must select the sequence that captures the most pieces. If more than one sequence qualifies, one must capture with a king instead of a man. If more than one sequence qualifies, one must select the sequence that captures the most number of kings. If there are still more sequences, one must select the sequence that captures a king first.

 Men cannot jump kings. It is mainly played in Italy, and some Northern African countries.

Invented variants

Games sometimes confused with draughts variants

History

Ancient games


An Alquerque board in its starting position

A similar game has been played for thousands of years. A board resembling a draughts board was found in Ur dating from 3000 BC. In the British Museum are specimens ofancient Egyptian checkerboards, found with their pieces in burial chambers, and the game was played by Queen Hatasu. Plato mentioned a game, πεττεια or petteia, as being of Egyptian origin, and Homer also mentions it. The method of capture was placing two pieces either side of the opponent's piece. It was said to have been played during the Trojan War. The Romans played a derivation of petteia called latrunculi, or the game of the Little Soldiers.


Men in medieval clothing playing draughts

Alquerque

An Arabic game called Quirkat or al-qirq, with similar play to modern draughts, was played on a 5×5 board. It is mentioned in the 10th century work Kitab al-Aghani. Al qirq was also the name for the game that is now called Nine Men's Morris. Al qirq was brought to Spain by the Moors, where it became known as Alquerque, the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name. The rules are given in the 13th century book Libro de los juegos. In about 1100, probably in the south of France, the game of Alquerque was adapted using backgammon pieces on a chessboard. Each piece was called a "fers", the same name as the chess queen, as the move of the two pieces was the same at the time.

Evolution

The rule of crowning was used by the 13th century, as it is mentioned in the Philip Mouskat's Chronique in 1243 when the game was known as Fierges, the name used for the chess queen (derived from the Persian ferz, meaning royal counsellor or vizier). The pieces became known as "dames" when that name was also adopted for the chess queen. The rule forcing players to take whenever possible was introduced in France in around 1535, at which point the game became known as Jeu forcé, identical to modern English draughts. The game without forced capture became known as Le jeu plaisant de dames, the precursor of international draughts.

The 18th-century English author Samuel Johnson wrote a foreword to a 1756 book about draughts by William Payne, the earliest book in English about the game.[8]

Computer draughts

English draughts

Further information: English draughts#Computer players
English draughts (American 8×8 checkers) has been the arena for several notable advances in game artificial intelligence. In the 1950s, Arthur Samuel created one of the first board game-playing programs of any kind. More recently, in 2007 scientists at the University of Alberta evolved their "Chinook" program up to the point where it is unbeatable. A brute force approach that took hundreds of computers working nearly 2 decades was used to solve the game, showing that a game of draughts will always end in a stalemate if neither player makes a mistake. The solution is for the draughts variation called go-as-you-please (GAYP) checkers and not for the variation called three-move restriction checkers. As of December 2007, this makes English draughts the most complex game ever solved.

International draughts

Further information: International_draughts#Computers

References

External links

Draughts associations and federations

Online play

History, articles, variants, rules

Armenian draughts is a variant of draughts (or checkers) played in Armenia. Its rules are quite similar to Turkish draughts. Armenian draughts, however, allows diagonal movement, too.
Players take turns with each making one move per turn. Pieces consist of men and kings. There are no kings in the setup position.
On an 8x8 board, 16 men are lined up on each side in two rows, skipping the first and last row. So, from a player's point of view, the second and third row are filled with his own men, and the sixth and seventh row are filled with the opponent's men.
A man can move forwards or sideways to an orthogonally adjacent field, if that field is empty. If there is an opposing piece on that field and the field behind the piece (in direction of the movement) is empty, the opposing piece can be captured by a jump, with the capturing piece going to said empty field. Additionally, pieces can move, but not capture, one square diagonally forward. There is no backward movement or capture for men. Upon ending a move on the last row, a man is promoted to king. Note that the extra movement and capture rights of a king do not yet apply to the man promoted in this move.
Kings may move any number of fields orthogonally forwards, sideways, or backwards, capturing by jumping over a piece and landing in any field of an unbroken row or line of empty fields behind the piece captured. Additionally, kings may move, but not capture, over any number of diagonal fields. In other words, the king moves like a Chess queen. Capturing, however, is different.
Multiple captures are allowed, even required where possible, for men and kings alike. If there are different ways of capture, the one which takes the most pieces (no difference between kings and men is made) is mandatory. If there are several ways of maximum capture possible, the player may choose. As opposed to European versions of draughts, captured pieces are removed during the capture, allowing longer ranges of capture. Winner is the player whose opponent cannot move anymore.

Draughts or Checkers is a board game.