CHECKERS - Draughts

• Introduction and history
• Board setup
• The game basis
• Multiple captures
• Promotion
• End of the game

Introduction and history

:It is said that Checkers is the mother of all board games. Checkers as we know it today has been around since 1400 BC and in Egypt was called "Alquerque". At Thebes, a wall painting shows Ramses III apparently playing an early checker with a lady. This picture shows that even mighty Greek warriors, such as Trojan War heroes Achilles and Ajax (shown on a sixth century B.C. pottery) did battle on the checkerboard.

"Draughts" was its name in Europe. Books describing methods of playing were published as early as 1547 in Spain.
A numerous of different versions of this game exist in the world, considering different sized checkerboards and different application rules.

Checkers is a game for two players, played on a board consisting of eight by eight squares or ten by ten squares and twelve or fifteen checkers for each player over dark squares.

Links:

Checkers 'solved' after years of number crunching
The English Draughts Association
World Man-Machine Checkers Champion

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Board set-up

The picture below shows the initial arrangements of checkers on the board.

Note that the twelve (or fifteen depending on game settings) pieces of one colour are on the first three rows of alternating dark squares. Repeat the same, with the other twelve pieces on the other side of the board, again putting all pieces on the dark squares.

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The game basis

White always begins the play, and players take turns from there. After the game, players switch colours.
Here is the essentials basis of the game:

• Checkers move diagonally, one square forward, always onto a dark square.If all the dark squares diagonal to apiece already have pieces on them, that piece is blocked and another must be moved.Checkers can\'t move backwards unless they have been "promoted" (see explanation below).
• An opponent piece is captured by jumping (always diagonally) over it to an empty square just beyond the piece being captured. Take the captured piece off the board.

Any number of checkers may be captured in just one move, as long as each jump follows the rules. In other words, as long as you keep moving forward and in diagonal, and there are available squares immediately beyond the opponent piece, you can keep jumping and capturing opponent checkers.

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Multiple captures

A piece may not end a move in a position from which an additional capture is possible (except during a move in which a checker becomes a queen, as it is explained below). Both, checker and queen, may capture checkers, queens, or a combination of checkers and queens.

A player who has more than one way to make a capturing move may make whichever capturing move he or she chooses; there is no requirement to capture the most pieces or the most queens. When a checker moves or jumps to the last rank, its turn ends. Even if the piece made a jump to get there, it may not continue jumping backward as a queen on the same turn.

Promotion

When a checker is moved all the way to the far side of the board (closest to its opponent), it "promotes" to a queen. Queens must capture opponent pieces if they are able to do so, like checkers do, but they also may move and capture backward.

Queens can move forward and backwards and there are two ways of moving queens:

• Queens may move more than one adjacent cell (always in the same direction). If the queen runs and jumps to capture an opponent piece (always diagonally) over it, its move ends at the empty square just beyond the piece being captured.
• Queens may move and capture the same way as checkers, but they also may move and capture backward.
  

End of the game

The game is won by the first player who captures, or blocks, the twelve (or fifteen depending on game settings) opponent\'s pieces.

If both players have equal number of queens on the board, and they have made ten movements each one, without capturing an opposite queen or checker, the game will end automatically in a draw.

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