Draughts
Encyclopedia
Draughts is a group of abstract strategy board game
s between two players which involve diagonal
moves of uniform pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over the enemy's 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, followed by English draughts
, also called American checkers, played on an 8×8 checkerboard
, but there are many other variants including 12×12 which is gaining popularity.
Draughts is played by two people, on opposite sides of a playing board, alternating moves. One player has dark pieces, and the other has light pieces. It is against the rules for one player to move the other player's pieces. The player with the light pieces makes the first move unless stated otherwise. Pieces move diagonally and opponents' pieces are captured by jumping over them to an unoccupied square. The playable surface consists only of the dark squares. A piece may only move into an unoccupied square. Capturing is not mandatory in most official rules, though many people play with variant rules that make capturing to be mandatory. In all variants, the player who has no pieces left or cannot move anymore has lost the game unless otherwise stated.
Uncrowned pieces ("men") move one step diagonally forwards and capture other pieces by making two steps in the same direction, jumping over the opponent's piece on the intermediate square. 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. In English draughts
men can only capture forwards, but in international draughts
they may also capture (diagonally) backwards.
When men reach the crownhead or kings row (the farthest row forward), they become kings, marked by placing an additional piece on top of the first, and acquire additional powers including the ability to move backwards (and capture backwards, in variants in which they cannot already do so). As with men, a king may make successive jumps in a single turn provided that each is a capture.
In international draughts, with the flying kings rule kings can move as far as they want along unblocked diagonals. This move can (but needn't) 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 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.
in chess
(the men are known as "pawns").
A board resembling a draughts board was found in Ur
dating from 3000 BC. In the British Museum
are specimens of ancient 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.
. 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.
(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.
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
.
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
s between two players which involve diagonal
Diagonal
A diagonal is a line joining two nonconsecutive vertices of a polygon or polyhedron. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word "diagonal" derives from the Greek διαγώνιος , from dia- and gonia ; it was used by both Strabo and Euclid to refer to a line connecting two vertices of a...
moves of uniform pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over the enemy's pieces. Draughts developed from alquerque
Alquerque
Alquerque is a strategy board game that is thought to have originated in the Middle East. It is considered to have been the parent of draughts and Fanorona.-History:...
. The name derives from the verb to draw or to move.
The most popular forms are international draughts
International draughts
International draughts is a board game, one of the variants of draughts. It is played on a 10×10 board with alternatingly dark and light squares, of which only the 50 dark ones are used. There are two players on opposite sides, with 20 pieces each, light for one player and dark for the other...
, played on a 10×10 board, followed by English draughts
English draughts
English draughts or checkers , also called American checkers or straight checkers or in Israel damka, is a form of draughts board game. Unlike international draughts, it is played on an eight by eight squared board with twelve pieces on each side...
, also called American checkers, played on an 8×8 checkerboard
Checkerboard
A checkerboard or chequerboard is a board of chequered pattern on which English draughts is played. It is an 8×8 board and the 64 squares are of alternating dark and light color, often red and black....
, but there are many other variants including 12×12 which is gaining popularity.
General rules
Uncrowned pieces ("men") move one step diagonally forwards and capture other pieces by making two steps in the same direction, jumping over the opponent's piece on the intermediate square. 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. In English draughts
English draughts
English draughts or checkers , also called American checkers or straight checkers or in Israel damka, is a form of draughts board game. Unlike international draughts, it is played on an eight by eight squared board with twelve pieces on each side...
men can only capture forwards, but in international draughts
International draughts
International draughts is a board game, one of the variants of draughts. It is played on a 10×10 board with alternatingly dark and light squares, of which only the 50 dark ones are used. There are two players on opposite sides, with 20 pieces each, light for one player and dark for the other...
they may also capture (diagonally) backwards.
When men reach the crownhead or kings row (the farthest row forward), they become kings, marked by placing an additional piece on top of the first, and acquire additional powers including the ability to move backwards (and capture backwards, in variants in which they cannot already do so). As with men, a king may make successive jumps in a single turn provided that each is a capture.
In international draughts, with the flying kings rule kings can move as far as they want along unblocked diagonals. This move can (but needn't) 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 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.
National and regional standard rules
| National variant | Board size | Pieces per side | Long range kings? | Can men capture backwards? | Who moves first? | Capture constraints | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| International draughts International draughts International draughts is a board game, one of the variants of draughts. It is played on a 10×10 board with alternatingly dark and light squares, of which only the 50 dark ones are used. There are two players on opposite sides, with 20 pieces each, light for one player and dark for the other... (or Polish draughts) |
10×10 | 20 | yes | 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 Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... , Suriname Suriname Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as... , France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... , Belgium Belgium Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many... , some eastern Europe Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"... an countries, some parts of Africa Africa Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area... , some parts of the former USSR, and other European countries |
| English draughts English draughts English draughts or checkers , also called American checkers or straight checkers or in Israel damka, is a form of draughts board game. Unlike international draughts, it is played on an eight by eight squared board with twelve pieces on each side... |
8×8 | 12 | no | no | Black | Any sequence may be chosen, as long as all possible captures are made. Failing to capture results in forfeiture of the piece (huffing Huff (board games) Huffing is a rule used in some board games, such as Alquerque and traditional and informal English draughts . By this rule, a player who fails to make a capturing move when one is available is penalised by having the piece huffed, i.e... ). |
Also called American checkers or "straight checkers", since it is also played in the USA. |
| Brazilian draughts | 8×8 | 12 | yes | yes | White | A sequence must capture the maximum possible number of pieces. | Played in Brazil Brazil Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people... . The rules come from international draughts, but board size and number of pieces come from English draughts. In the Philippines, it is known as "derecha" and is played on a mirrored board, often replaced by a crossed lined board (only diagonals are represented). |
| Ghanaian draughts | 10×10 | 20 | yes | yes | White | Any sequence may be chosen, as long as all possible captures are made. Accidentally passing up a king's capture opportunity leads to forfeiture of the king. | Played in Ghana Ghana Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south... . The board is mirrored (the left side is flipped to the right side and vice versa). You lose if you are left with a single piece (man or king). |
| Canadian draughts | 12×12 | 30 | yes | yes | White | A sequence must capture the maximum possible number of pieces. | International rules, on a 12x12 board. Mainly played in Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... . |
| Malaysian draughts / Singaporean draughts | 12×12 | 30 | yes | no | not fixed | Capture is forced. Failing to do so results in forfeiture of that piece (huffing Huff (board games) Huffing is a rule used in some board games, such as Alquerque and traditional and informal English draughts . By this rule, a player who fails to make a capturing move when one is available is penalised by having the piece huffed, i.e... ). |
Mainly played in Malaysia, Singapore Singapore Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the... and the region nearby. Also known locally as "Black-White Chess". Sometimes it is also played on 8x8 board when 12x12 board is not available. 10x10 board is rare in this region. |
| Frisian draughts | 10×10 | 20 | yes | 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 Pool checkers Pool checkers, also called "American pool checkers", is a variant of draughts, mainly played in the southeastern United States.-Basic rules:... |
8×8 | 12 | yes | yes | Black | Any sequence may be chosen, as long as all possible captures are made. | It is mainly played in the southeastern United States Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America.... . 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. |
| Spanish draughts | 8×8 | 12 | yes | no | 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 pool checkers. The board is mirrored (the left side is flipped to the right side and vice versa). It is mainly played in Portugal Portugal Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the... and in some parts of South America and some Northern African countries. |
| Russian checkers Russian checkers Russian draughts is a variant of draughts played in some parts in Russia and some parts of the former USSR, as well as parts of Eastern Europe and Israel.-Rules:... |
8×8 | 12 | yes | 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 from 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 Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.... , and Israel Israel The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... . 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 normally wins if (s)he occupies the main diagonal first and then builds the so-called Petrov's triangle. 2 variants must be signaled : the 10x8 variant(wide 10, high 8), and the poddavki, which is the give away variant of shashki (it has official championships). |
| Italian draughts Italian draughts Italian draughts is a variant of the Draughts family played mainly in Italy and Northern Africa. It is a two-handed game played on a board consisting of sixty-four squares, thirty-two white and thirty-two black. There are twenty-four pieces: twelve white and twelve black... |
8×8 | 12 | no | no | White | If there are many sequences to capture, one has to capture the sequence that has the most pieces. If there are still more sequences, one has to capture with a king instead of a man. If there are still more sequences, one has to capture the sequence that has the most kings. If there are still more sequences, one has to capture the sequence that has a king first. | Men cannot jump kings. The board is mirrored (the left side is flipped to the right side and vice versa). It is mainly played in Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... , and some Northern African countries. |
| Czech draughts Czech draughts The board game of Czech draughts is played, as its name suggests, in the territory formerly occupied by the Czechoslovak Republic . It is governed by the Czech Draughts Federation.- Rules :... |
8×8 | 12 | yes | no | 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. |
| Argentinian draughts | 8×8 | 12 | yes | no | White | A sequence must capture the maximum possible number of pieces, and the maximum possible number of kings from all such sequences. | The rules are similar to the Spanish game, but the king, when it captures, must stop after the captured piece, and may begin a new capture movement from there. With this rule, there is no draw with 2 pieces against 1. The board is mirrored. |
| Thai draughts | 8×8 | 8 | yes | no | Black | Any sequence may be chosen, as long as all possible captures are made. | During a capturing move, pieces are removed immediately after a capture. Kings stop on the field directly behind the piece captured and must go on capturing from there, if possible, even in the direction where they have come from. |
| Turkish draughts Turkish draughts Turkish draughts is a variant of draughts played in Turkey.On an 8x8 board, 16 men are lined up on each side, in two rows, skipping the furthest back.... |
8×8 | 16 | yes | no | White | A sequence must capture the maximum possible number of pieces. | In this form of the game (also known as Dama), men move straight forward or sideways, instead of diagonally. When a man reaches the last row it promotes to a flying king (Dama) which moves like a rook Rook (chess) A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes... . 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 Armenian draughts Armenian draughts is a variant of draughts played in Armenia. Its rules are quite similar to Turkish draughts. Armenian draughts, however, allows diagonal movement, too.... (called tama) also allowing some form of diagonal movement. |
| Myanmar draughts | 8×8 | 12 | yes | no | White | A sequence must capture the maximum possible number of pieces. | Players make agreement before starting the game. They can choose two options "Must Capture" and "Free Capture". In "Must Capture" type of game, the man that doesn't capture will be collected by the opponent as a fine. In the "Free Capture" game, it is optional to capture. |
Naming
In most non-English languages (except those that acquired the game from English speakers), draughts is called 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 queenQueen (chess)
The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...
in chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
(the men are known as "pawns").
Invented variants
- Suicide checkers - Also called anti-checkers, giveaway checkers or losing draughts. This is the misère version of checkers. The winner is the first player to have no legal move: that is, all of whose pieces are lost or blocked.
- Les Vauriens/Mule Checkers is a checkers variant in which some pieces affect the outcome as in suicide checkers, while the rest are treated normally.http://www.itsyourturn.com/t_helptopic2030.html#helpitem1534
- LascaLascaLasca is a draughts variant, invented by the second World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker...
is a checkers variant on a 7×7 board, with 25 fields used. Jumped pieces are placed under the jumper, so that towers are built. Only the top piece of a jumped tower is captured. This variant was invented by World Chess ChampionWorld Chess ChampionshipThe World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
Emanuel LaskerEmanuel LaskerEmanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years...
. - CheskersCheskersCheskers is a variant of checkers invented by Solomon Golomb in 1948.-Pieces:* Pawns move as pieces in checkers: they move, without taking, one square diagonally forward, but take by jumping two squares diagonally forward over an enemy piece to an empty square, thereby removing the enemy piece...
is a variant of checkers invented by Solomon Golomb. Each player begins with a bishopBishop (chess)A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...
and a "knightKnight (chess)The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...
" (which jump with coordinates (3,1) rather than (2,1) so as to stay on the black squares), and men reaching the back rank promote to a bishop, knight, or king. - TiersTiersTiers, also known as Ultra Checkers, is a complex variant of checkers that allows players to upgrade their pieces beyond kings. It is played on a standard eight by eight checkers board with two opposing players...
is a complex variant of checkers that allows players to upgrade their pieces beyond kings. - DaMath is a checkers variant utilizing math principles and numbered chips popular in the PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. - Standoff is an American checkers variant using both checkers and dice.
Games sometimes confused with draughts variants
- HalmaHalmaHalma is a board game invented in 1883 or 1884 by an American thoracic surgeon at Harvard Medical School, George Howard Monks. The inspiration was an English game called Hoppity, which was devised in 1854....
is a game in which pieces can move in any direction and jump over any other piece, friend or enemy. Pieces are not captured. Each player starts with 19 (two-player) or 13 (four-player) pieces in one corner and tries to move them all into the opposite corner. - Chinese checkersChinese checkersChinese checkers is a board game that can be played by two, three, four, or six people, playing individually or with partners...
is based on Halma, but uses a star-shaped board divided into equilateral triangles. Despite its name, this game is not of ChineseChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
origin, nor is it based on checkers.
Ancient games
A similar game has been played for thousands of years.A board resembling a draughts board was found in Ur
Ur
Ur was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...
dating from 3000 BC. In the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
are specimens of ancient Egyptian checkerboards, found with their pieces in burial chambers, and the game was played by Queen Hatasu
Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut also Hatchepsut; meaning Foremost of Noble Ladies;1508–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt...
. Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
mentioned a game, πεττεια or petteia, as being of Egyptian origin, and Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
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
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
played a derivation of petteia called latrunculi
Ludus latrunculorum
Ludus latrunculorum, latrunculi, or simply latrones is a board game played by the ancient Greeks and Romans...
, or the game of the Little Soldiers.
Alquerque
An Arabic game called Quirkat or al-qirq, with similar play to modern draughts, was played on a 5x5 board. It is mentioned in the 10th century work Kitab al-AghaniKitab al-Aghani
Kitab al-aghani , is an encyclopedic collection of poems and songs that runs to over 20 volumes in modern editions by the 8th/9th-century litterateur Abu l-Faraj al-Isfahani . Abu l-Faraj claimed to have taken 50 years in writing the work, which ran to over 10 000 pages...
. Al qirq was also the name for the game that is now called Nine Men's Morris
Nine Men's Morris
Nine Men's Morris is an abstract strategy board game for two players that emerged from the Roman Empire. The game is also known as Nine Man Morris, Mill, Mills, Merels, Merelles, and Merrills in English....
. Al qirq was brought to Spain by the Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
, where it became known as Alquerque
Alquerque
Alquerque is a strategy board game that is thought to have originated in the Middle East. It is considered to have been the parent of draughts and Fanorona.-History:...
, the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name. The rules are given in the 13th century book Libro de los juegos
Libro de los juegos
The Libro de los Juegos, , or Libro de acedrex, dados e tablas, was commissioned by Alfonso X of Castile, Galicia and León and completed in his scriptorium in Toledo in 1283, is an exemplary piece of Alfonso’s medieval literary legacy.Consisting of ninety-seven leaves of parchment, many with color...
. In about 1100, probably in the south of France, the game of Alquerque was adapted using backgammon
Backgammon
Backgammon is one of the oldest board games for two players. The playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and players win by removing all of their pieces from the board. There are many variants of backgammon, most of which share common traits...
pieces on a chessboard
Chessboard
A chessboard is the type of checkerboard used in the board game chess, and consists of 64 squares arranged in two alternating colors...
.
Each piece was called a "fers", the same name as the chess queen
Queen (chess)
The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...
, 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 queenQueen (chess)
The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...
(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
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
wrote a foreword to a 1756 book about draughts by William Payne, the earliest book in English about the game.
English draughts
English draughts
English draughts
English draughts or checkers , also called American checkers or straight checkers or in Israel damka, is a form of draughts board game. Unlike international draughts, it is played on an eight by eight squared board with twelve pieces on each side...
(American 8×8 checkers) has been the arena for several notable advances in game artificial intelligence
Game artificial intelligence
Game artificial intelligence refers to techniques used in computer and video games to produce the illusion of intelligence in the behavior of non-player characters . The techniques used typically draw upon existing methods from the field of artificial intelligence...
. In the 1950s, Arthur Samuel
Arthur Samuel
Arthur Lee Samuel was an American pioneer in the field of computer gaming and artificial intelligence. The Samuel Checkers-playing Program appears to be the world's first self-learning program, and as such a very early demonstration of the fundamental concept of artificial intelligence...
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
Chinook (draughts player)
Chinook is a computer program that plays English draughts , developed around 1989 at the University of Alberta, led by Jonathan Schaeffer. Other developers are Rob Lake, Paul Lu, Martin Bryant, and Norman Treloar. In July 2007, Chinook's developers announced that the program has been improved to...
" program up to the point where it is unbeatable. A brute force
Brute-force search
In computer science, brute-force search or exhaustive search, also known as generate and test, is a trivial but very general problem-solving technique that consists of systematically enumerating all possible candidates for the solution and checking whether each candidate satisfies the problem's...
approach that took hundreds of computers working nearly 2 decades was used to solve
Solved game
A solved game is a game whose outcome can be correctly predicted from any position when each side plays optimally. Games which have not been solved are said to be "unsolved"...
the game, showing that a game of draughts will always end in a stalemate
Stalemate
Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....
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
Solved game
A solved game is a game whose outcome can be correctly predicted from any position when each side plays optimally. Games which have not been solved are said to be "unsolved"...
.
See also
- Pub gamesPub gamesPub games are games which are or were played in pubs, bars, inns, and taverns, particularly traditional games played in English pubs. Most are indoor games, though some are played outdoors Pub games are games which are or were played in pubs, bars, inns, and taverns, particularly traditional games...
- GameGameA game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
s - Game of strategy
- Solved gameSolved gameA solved game is a game whose outcome can be correctly predicted from any position when each side plays optimally. Games which have not been solved are said to be "unsolved"...
- List of draughts players
- FanoronaFanoronaFanorona is an abstract strategy board game indigenous to Madagascar.-Introduction:Fanorona has three standard versions: Fanoron-Telo, Fanoron-Dimy, and Fanoron-Tsivy. The difference between these variants is the size of board played on. Fanoron-Telo is played on a 3×3 board and the difficulty of...
- ChessChessChess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
External links
- World Checkers & Draughts Federation
- World Draughts Federation (FMJD)
- European Draughts Confederation
- Danish Draughts Federation - some good pages on strategy
- Polish Draughts Federation (PDF)
- American Checker Federation (ACF)
- Northwest Draughts Federation (NWDF)
- English Draughts Association (EDA)
- German Draughts Association (DSV NRW)
- Server for playing correspondence tournaments
- Server developed by Royal Dutch Draughts Federation dedicated to 10x10 draughts
- Mind Sports South Africa
- Jim Loy's checkers pages with many links and articles.
- A free program that allows you to play more than 20 kinds of draughts.
- The history of checkers/draughts