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MEMORIES:
kendra remembers...I still don't know how to play this game! We always had it and I would watch my brothers play. ... More »
Posted on 08/20/08
PHOTOS:
Manufacturer:
Somewhere between the sophistication of Chess, the technogadgetry of video games, and generation gaps scattered throughout them all lies Checkers. A game of diagonally moving and opponent jumping strategy, Checkers seems to know as many origins and variations as it does countries.
Ancient writings and portraits date the Checkers family back several thousand years, placing it comfortably in Egyptian antiquity and Greek mythology. While the game board makes it difficult to distinguish Checkers from its relatives Chess, Backgammon, and Morris, it can nevertheless be found here and there throughout the historical glove. King Ramses III enjoyed or engaged in Checkers enough that either the practice or event was deemed worthy of recording within a temple at Thebes, predating the Christian era by thousands of years. Trojan foes and Greek heroes Achilles and Ajax battle one another not on the field but at the Checkers board according to depictions found on ancient pottery. Other pictures, portraits, and accounts substantiate the claims of other less infamous characters from yester age. Medieval Checkers knew nothing of class distinction, proving just as popular among the vassals as it was among the serfs. Six and seven hundred year old wills and other documents chronicle the desire families had that their valuable folding or reversible gaming boards be preserved and handed down to future generations.
The game of Checkers is an American designation and is actually known more commonly throughout the world by its British appellation, “Draughts” (pronounced “drafts”). If you’ve ever heard of Albuquerque, Fierges (or Ferses), or Dames, you’ve heard of one of any number of ancient or foreign versions of Checkers. Rules vary but one consistent factor seems to be two sets of twelve uniform pieces on each end of the board. Checkers evolved in the middle fifteenth century when the French added the concept of capturing opposing pieces by “jumping,” to their game of Jeu Force, a tactic that quickly spread to other versions and remains today.
Checkers had completely engulfed Western Europe by the seventeenth century. Although each player had twelve pieces, game boards themselves varied greatly, ranging in size anywhere from eight by four to twelve by twelve. Europeans favor a one hundred square board, Americans the smaller sixty-four square, Canadians daring the vast expanse of the one hundred forty-four square board. Though black and white sometimes prevails, most Checker pieces are red or black and sit on a board checkered the same color. The actual, real-life, bona fide, not-making-this-up American Checker Federation made red and white pieces the official standard and placed them on a green and yellow checkerboard…
In Checkers – as opposed to Chess – only half of the squares are used since diagonal movement is the only motion allowed. Twelve identical pieces are lined up in two rows of six along the back of the board. Play begins when a player moves any one of his “men” forward one diagonal space. Whenever a player finds his path blocked by an opponent, he must “capture” that opponent by jumping over it and landing in the next open space. If, after jumping one piece, the player is in position to jump another, he must do so until he cannot jump any more. Players can only move forward until they reach the crownhead or “King’s Row,” the rearmost starting row for the opponent. Once a piece lands here, they are “kinged” and can move diagonally backward or forward thereafter. When a player captures all of the opponent’s men, or renders them unable to move, the game is won. However, much like Chess, draws in Checkers are all too common.
While some claim that Checkers is old-fashioned, outdated, or inferior, history patiently bears the proof that Checkers is also durable, adaptable, and enjoyable. What was evident to King Ramses III, Achilles, and others down through time is not lost on the Checkers aficionado of today: Sometimes the best things in life truly are the simple things.
