Checkers

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Checkers is the name of several different board games. All of these games are similar. In every kind of checkers, you can take the other player's pieces by "jumping" over them.

"Checkers" is the American name. In British English, these games are called "draughts."

[edit] History

Checkers comes from a very old game called Alquerque. Alquerque was played on a different kind of board. Around the 12th century, a French person used a chess board to play Alquerque. This was the first checkers game. Later, maybe in 1535, a new rule was added: when you can jump, you must jump. This made the game more interesting.

[edit] Rules

In most games of checkers, there are two players. The players are at opposite ends of the board. One player has dark pieces, and one player has light pieces. They take turns moving their pieces. Players move their pieces diagonally from one square to another square. When a player jumps over their opponent's (the other player's) piece, he takes that piece.

[edit] English checkers

Most English-speaking people call English checkers "checkers." You play English checkers on an 8x8 chess board. You only use the dark squares (you never use the light squares). For that reason, good players play differently in the left and right corners.

• Pieces The pieces are flat and round. They are usually colored red and white. For this reason, the darker pieces are always called "Red" and the lighter pieces are always called "White." Some checkers sets have red and black pieces. Then we call the red pieces "White" and the black pieces "Red." There are two kinds of pieces: plain pieces and "kings". You make a king by putting two plain pieces on top of each other.
• Starting Position Each player starts with 12 pieces on the three rows closest to their own side. The row closest to each player is called the "King Row". The Red side moves first.
• How to Move You can move in two ways. You can just move a piece forward, diagonally, to the next dark square. But if your piece, the other player's piece, and an empty square are lined up, you can "jump" the other player's piece. Then you jump over the other player's piece onto the empty square. You take the other player's piece off the board. You can use one piece to jump many times in one turn. If you can jump, you must jump. Sometimes you can jump in different ways. Then you can choose how to jump.
• Kings If a player's piece moves into the King Row on the other player's side, it becomes a king. It can move forward and backward. (Regular pieces can only move forward.) You cannot jump out of the King Row until the next turn.
• How the Game Ends The first player who cannot move is the loser. So if you lose all of your pieces, you lose the game. But if you cannot move, you lose (even if you have pieces). You can lose even if you have all your pieces. You may also resign (choose to lose). If nobody can lose, the game is a draw.

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