50 Fun Facts About Checkers

Which side traditionally moves first in checkers?

Players then alternate turns, and only the dark squares of the board are used.

What older game is checkers developed from?

Alquerque was played on a 5x5 grid of intersecting lines and reached Spain with the Moors.

The word "draughts" derives from which verb?

"Checkers" comes instead from the checkered board the game is played on.

On what size board is international draughts played?

It uses fifty playing squares, flying kings and compulsory majority capture.

Canadian checkers is played on a board of what size?

Malaysian and Singaporean checkers, known locally as dam, use the same 12×12 board.

Who led the team that weakly solved American checkers in 2007?

Their result showed perfect play from the start position always ends in a draw.

With perfect play by both sides, how does a game of American checkers end?

The proof took hundreds of computers nearly two decades of work.

Which part of the board do the pieces ever occupy?

Pieces move diagonally, so half the board never comes into play.

What is the row where a man becomes a king called?

A king is marked by stacking a second piece on top of the first, known as crowning.

What is the informal name for a piece that can move any number of squares diagonally?

American checkers has no such piece; its kings only gain the ability to move and capture backwards.

In most non-English languages, checkers is called by a word meaning what?

Dame, dames and damas all refer to ladies; the promoted pieces are called dames too.

Which 1283 manuscript commissioned by Alfonso X gives the rules of checkers' ancestor game?

It describes twelve pieces per side on twenty-five positions, capturing by jumping.

Around what year was the European checkers game already being played, probably in southern France?

Moving the game to the checkered board and diagonal-only movement cost it half the squares.

Which branch of the game kept straight-line movement on a plain 8×8 board?

Its "long king" can move multiple squares in any orthogonal direction.

In 1243 the game was known as Fierges, a name also used for which chess piece?

Fierges comes from the Persian ferz, meaning a royal counsellor or vizier.

What was the medieval French variant with compulsory captures called?

The optional-capture "jeu plaisant de dames" was the precursor of international checkers.

What was the penalty called when a player who failed to capture lost the offending piece?

Players sometimes skipped a capture on purpose when losing the piece hurt less than making the jump.

Who held on longest to the rule of removing a piece that skipped a capture?

European draughts only abandoned the rule in the late 19th century.

The 10×10 game that became international draughts emerged around 1700 under what national name?

Legend credits a Polish courtier in Paris in 1723, but a 1710 dictionary already asked "Can you play Polish draughts?"

Under the majority rule, which jump sequence must a player choose?

It is a rule of international draughts; American checkers lets the player choose any sequence.

Which English mathematician wrote the first English book on draughts in 1756?

Samuel Johnson contributed the book's foreword.

In what year was the World Draughts Federation (FMJD) founded?

Its founders were the French, Dutch, Belgian and Swiss organisations, and it has run championships every two years since 1948.

Senegalese player Baba Sy's 1963 world title match was never played because of what?

Soviet players otherwise dominated the international game from 1958 through the 1970s.

How many consecutive draws did the 1971 Andreiko–Koeperman world championship match produce?

The flying king's defensive power means capturing a lone king usually takes four pieces, not two.

Which ten-time world champion withdrew from international draughts in 2016, citing endless draws?

By 2015 all seven regulation games of the world championship had been drawn.

Which world chess champion invented the tower-building checkers variant Lasca?

Jumped pieces go under the jumper to form towers; only the top piece of a tower is captured.

Cheskers, in which men promote to a bishop, camel or king, was invented by whom?

The camel jumps with coordinates (3,1) so it always stays on the black squares.

Damath, a variant using numbered chips and maths principles, is popular in which country?

It is one of several modern designs alongside Dameo, Hexdame and Loca.

In which variant is the aim to lose all your own pieces?

It is also called anti-checkers, giveaway checkers or losing draughts.

Which Russian variant lets you move your opponent's pieces as well as your own?

Bashni, by contrast, stacks captured men under the capturing piece to build towers.

Who wrote the first checkers computer program, in 1951?

It first tried to run on 30 July 1951 at the National Physical Laboratory and failed because of program errors.

On which computer did Strachey's program successfully run in the summer of 1952?

Many consider it both the first computer checkers and one of the first video games.

Which IBM researcher's 1956 checkers program learned by playing against versions of itself?

It was one of the first adaptive programs; the winning versions survived.

Where was the checkers program Chinook developed?

The program was written in 1989 and retired from play after a record win at the 1996 U.S. National Tournament.

What was the name of the checker-playing robot unveiled at Oklahoma's Omniplex in 1983?

It ran on a 6502 processor, and was dumbed back down after improvements frustrated visitors.

How many pieces does each player start with in English draughts?

They sit on the dark squares of the three rows nearest each player.

In tournament play, which piece colours are traditional?

Black and red sets are common in the United States, but the darker side is always called "Black".

What happens when a man jumps into the kings row mid multi-jump?

It cannot continue capturing as a king until the next turn.

How long is the shortest possible complete game of English draughts?

Alan Beckerson found such games in 1977; Martin Bryant later proved there are exactly 247 of them.

What tournament rule picks the opening at random from a list of accepted starts?

Each opening is played twice with the players swapping sides; it has been used in the U.S. championship since 1934.

What does the abbreviation GAYP stand for in checkers?

Championships were played this way before 1900, with no restriction on openings.

How many squares are numbered in standard English draughts notation?

Numbering starts in Black's double corner; captures are written with an "x".

The men's world championship in English draughts dates to which decade?

It predates the international draughts world championship by several decades.

Who is widely considered the greatest checkers player ever?

He lost only seven games between 1950 and his death in 1995, two of them to a computer.

What was the day job of the player widely called the greatest in checkers history?

He held a doctorate in combinatorial analysis and also served as a lay preacher.

What was the score when Tinsley beat Chinook in their 1992 match?

Tinsley had resigned his world title so he could play the machine after the federations refused to let it compete.

Why did the 1994 Tinsley–Chinook rematch end early?

Chinook was declared man–machine champion but never actually beat Tinsley in a match.

Whom did Chinook beat 1–0 with 31 draws to defend its title in 1995?

After that match Schaeffer retired the program from play and set out to solve the game instead.

What is the title of the Chinook team leader's book about the program?

Subtitled "Challenging Human Supremacy in Checkers", it came out in 1997 and was updated in 2008.

Which star-shaped board game is based on Halma rather than being a true draughts variant?

Kōnane is sometimes called "Hawaiian checkers" and is another game often confused with the family.