Checkers

Checkers, family of games played by two people on a checkered board. In checkers, as it is known in the United States (or draughts, as it is known in Britain), the checkerboard is divided into 64 equal square spaces colored alternately black and red or any other two strongly contrasted colors. The checkers are small, circular, flat disks. Variants of the game that differ somewhat in rules from Anglo-American checkers are Chinese, Polish, Spanish, Italian, and Turkish checkers. Origins of the game have been traced to about 1600 bc in ancient Egypt. The earliest modern account of checkers appears in a book written by Antonio Torquemada and published in Valencia, Spain, in 1547.

Anglo-American checkers is a game for two players, each having a set of 12 checkers, one black, the other white or red. The pieces are placed on the dark squares. They may be moved diagonally only, one square at a time. A checker may not move to a square occupied by the opponent, but may jump over the opponent's piece to the vacant square immediately beyond the opponent's piece. The leaped-over piece is “taken” and removed from the board. If an opponent's piece is in front of the new position, with an empty space beyond, the second piece may also be taken; this is called a double jump. Longer jumps also occur.

When a piece on either side has progressed to the last row on the opposite side, it is crowned—that is, made a king. A second checker is placed on the first to indicate that it has been crowned. Like other pieces, kings can move only diagonally, one square at a time, except when jumping opponent's checkers; however, kings may move either backward or forward. This additional power gives a great advantage to the player who has the most kings.

The object of the game is to clear the board of the opponent's checkers or to block the opponent's checkers so that they cannot be moved. If a player cannot move, that player loses the game.