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Checkers

Checkers or Draughts, has ancient roots.  It is thought that the earliest form of checkers was a game discovered in an archaeological dig at Ur in Iraq.

 In ancient Egypt a game called Alquerque, which had a 5X5 board was a common and much played game.

How to play.

The game is played with Two players and the objective is to capture all of your opponents pieces. You start with 12 pieces each (different colors to help distinguish). The winner is the person who captures all their opponents pieces but also if their opponent is blocked in and cannot make any more moves.

1. Pieces always move diagonally. Single pieces are always limited to forward moves (toward the opponent).
2. A piece can only move one square unless it is capturing an opponents piece.
3. A piece making a capturing move leaps over one of the opponent’s pieces, landing in a straight diagonal line on the other side. Only one piece may be captured in a single jump; however, multiple jumps are allowed during a single turn.
4. If a piece is captured it is removed from the board.
5. If a player is able to make a capture the must make the jump and take away the piece there is no other option. But if there is more than one jump available then the player has the choice to make the multiple jumps.
6. When a piece reaches the furthest row from the player who controls that piece, it is crowned and becomes a king. One of the pieces which had been captured is placed on top of the king so that it is twice as high as a single piece.
7. Kings are the only pieces to be allowed to move forwards and backwards but they still must move diagonally. They may combine jumps in different directions.
8. Single pieces may shift direction diagonally during a multiple capture turn, but must always jump forward (toward the opponent).

Playing.

I have actually played checkers before so I already knew how to play it. It is a game that requires patience and some form of strategy. When I was younger I was playing a game against my father and I thought that I was winning I had 6 pieces left and he only had 2 but what I didn’t know was the fact that this was all part of his plan which was to sacrifice some of his pieces to get mine positioned in a way that he could capture multiple pieces in one jump.

It’s a game that you can play multiple times all day. And just because you have gotten one of your pieces knighted doesn’t mean that you have won the game.

I have tried to learn some plays to catch out my opponents i looked at a move called African Glasglow unfortunately i still have not be able to understand the rules of this move but with a bit more practice i hope to have learned it.