Checkers, also commonly known as Draughts, is a game with many variants. While the game is believed to date to roughly 3000 BCE in the City of Ur, modern Iraq, it has remained popular through ancient Egypt, being referred to as Alquerque, right the way up to the modern era, where it has morphed into many forms. For instance; Canadian Checkers uses a 12×12 board with five rows of pawns, where Turkish Draughts uses an 8X8 board, but has 2 full lines of pawns.
The most popular version is that of English Draughts or American Checkers, played on an 8×8 board, made up of alternating light and dark tiles, and 24 pawns.
The game is played by 2 players with different coloured pawns (light and dark). The pawns are placed on the dark tiles of the first 3 rows on each player’s side of the board.
The player with the dark tiles moves first. Pawns can be moved diagonally forward 1 tile per turn.
A player may capture one of their opponents pawns by jumping it. To do this, the opponents pawn must be ahead of the players pawn and there must be a free tile directly behind the opponents pawn. It is possible to jump multiple pawns in one move should the second pawn also have a free space directly behind it.
If a jump is possible, the player must take it.
Should a player get a pawn to the opposite end of the board, this pawn will be kinged. A second pawn will be placed on top of this pawn and it will now be able to move diagonally forwards and backwards.
To win, a player must capture all of their opponents pawns.
The rules to this game are quite simple but, since multiple versions of the game exist, two people playing the game may have experienced a slight different version throughout their life. Personally, I was taught 3 different variations of this game as a child by different members of my family.
This is a game of pure strategy, requiring planned moves and sacrifice in order to win.
It is possible to win by simply winging it, provided you’re not up against someone who knows what they are doing.
K00253257 - College Blog 