The Checkers Board Game or Draughts Board Game, as it’s known in the UK, is an extremely popular and well known board game which has been around a very long time. The Checkers board is split up into separate squares, it’s 8 squares wide and 8 squares long, making 64 squares in total. Each player starts with 12 Chechers peices of a particular color, the traditional colors for Checkers are usuaully 12 black peices and 12 red peices.
Each play then takes it in turns to move their peices one at a time in a diagonal pattern, one square at a time, towards their opponent. The opponents peices are then captured by jumping over them with the oppositve peice. If either of the two players manages to move one or more of their peices to the opposite side of the board, then that particular peice is transformed into a king. A king peice then has the ability to move in both directions on the board.
The game finally ends when one player has all of their peices “taken/captured” by their opponent, or their opponent has forced their peices into a position where no legal moves can be made.
| Checkers Game Information | |||
| Availability: | Find It Now On Amazon | ||
| Game Genre: | Strategy | ||
| Suitable For: | 6 Years And Over | ||
| Number Of Players: | 2 Players | ||
| Approx Playing Time: | 30 Minutes | ||
| User Reviews: | Read Reviews | ||
| Editions, Versions & Expansions: | See All | ||
A History Of Checkers/Draughts & It’s Origins
Most people aren’t aware that Checkers has a far greater history than you would probably first imagine, a history which dates back to the times of Ancient Egypt. The Checkers board game was probably known back then as Alquerque or Quirkat, playing peices and boards for both of these games have been found in archeological digs across the world and have been carbon dated to date back as far as 600 BC. The only major difference between the versions of the game found in the ground and our version, is that the ancient version only had a board of 5×5 and 10 peices, as opposed to the modern version which has a board of 8×8 and 12 peices.
This popular board game has also been known under the name of Fierges, Dame and Plaisant. But ultimately the game is most well known for being called the Checkers Board Game (In North America only) and Draughts in most other English speaking countries.
Despite people confusing Checkers with Chinese Checkers they are actually completely different games. Chinese Checkers isn’t actually Chinese at all, it originated in Germany in the early 1900’s. Equally the name Checkers bares no resemblance to the the Checkers Board Game.
Interesting Facts About Checkers/Draughts
- Checkers is only called Checkers in North America
- Checkers originated from the Ancient Egyptian game of Alquerque or Quirkat
- Checkers isn’t at all related to Chinese Checkers
- The Checkers concept is thought to be over 1,400 years old