Checkers
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49 free Checkers trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Checkers looks simple, but most people know the rules and not where they came from. The game grew out of Alquerque, a Moorish game described in a 1283 Spanish manuscript, moved onto the chess board in medieval Europe, picked up mandatory capture in France and the "huffing" penalty for anyone who skipped a jump, and split into a 64-square English game and a 100-square international one with flying kings. These 49 questions cover the rules, the history and the people. Who moves first, what a crowned man gains, why the board numbers run 1 to 32, and what three-move restriction does to tournament play. You will meet Marion Tinsley, the mathematics professor who lost seven games in 45 years, and Chinook, the University of Alberta program that took his man-versus-machine title and then spent 18 years proving that perfect checkers is a draw. There are questions on Strachey's 1951 program, Lasca, Russian towers and the draw crisis in the international game. Easy questions stick to the rules on the box; the hard tier asks about Isidore Weiss, Baba Sy's missing visa and the shortest possible game. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something either way.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In American checkers, which side makes the first move?
The darker pieces
The darker pieces. The dark side, called Black whatever colour the men really are, opens every game of American checkers; international draughts does it the other way round and gives the first move to White.
Q 02What older game is checkers developed from?
Alquerque
Alquerque. The Moors brought it to Spain, where it was played along the lines of a five-by-five grid, capturing by jumps; checkers began when players moved the same game onto a chessboard.
Q 03The word "draughts" derives from which verb?
To draw
To draw. A 'draught' was an old word for a move in a game, probably from the way a piece is drawn, or dragged, across the board; Americans named the game after its chequered board instead.
Q 04On what size board is international draughts played?
10×10
10×10. The hundred-square game is the most widely played form outside English-speaking countries, which have stayed with the 64-square board.
Q 05Which country gives its name to the checkers variant played on a 12×12 board?
Canada
Canada. French settlers in Quebec are credited with the game, which sets thirty men a side on the big board; the same 144 squares are used in Sri Lanka and parts of South-East Asia.
Q 06Who led the team that weakly solved American checkers in 2007?
Jonathan Schaeffer
Jonathan Schaeffer. His project began in 1989 as an attempt to beat the human world champion, and dozens of computers then worked on the full solution, with one long pause, until 2007.
Q 07With perfect play by both sides, how does a game of American checkers end?
In a draw
In a draw. The 2007 proof showed that neither side can force a win from the starting position, which means every decisive game of checkers ever played has turned on somebody's mistake.
Q 08In American checkers, which squares of the board do the pieces ever occupy?
Only the dark squares
Only the dark squares. Every move and every jump is diagonal, so a piece can never change colour, and half the board goes unused from the first move to the last.
Q 09In checkers, what is the row where a man is promoted called?
The kings row
The kings row. It is also called the crownhead, and the promotion is made visible by 'crowning': a second piece is stacked on top of the man.
Q 10What is the informal name for a piece that can move any number of squares diagonally?
A flying king
A flying king. It may slide any distance along a diagonal and capture from afar, as kings do in international draughts; an American king gains only the power to step and jump backwards.
Q 11In most non-English languages, checkers is called by a word meaning what?
Ladies
Ladies. The French play le jeu de dames, the Germans Damenspiel and the Spanish damas, all from the word for a lady, while English named the game after its moves or its board.
Q 12Which king had the rules of checkers' ancestor written into his thirteenth-century Book of Games?
Alfonso X
Alfonso X of Castile. His Libro de los Juegos describes a game played on twenty-five points, capturing by jumps, which the Moors had brought to Spain.
Q 13Boards from ancient Ur were once hailed as early checkers sets, but what kind of game were they really for?
A race game with dice
Q 21Which writer supplied the dedication for William Payne's 1756 guide to draughts, the first in English?
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson. He wrote the dedication for Payne, a London mathematician, and Payne's games and problems lived on when Sturges folded them into his own guide to the game in 1800.
Q 22France, Belgium, Switzerland and which other country founded the World Draughts Federation?
Netherlands
The Netherlands. Until then every world champion had been French or Dutch, and the federation, founded in 1947, has run the championship since 1948.
Q 23Which country produced Baba Sy, declared world draughts champion for 1963 only after his death?
Senegal
A race game with dice. Each player ran seven pieces around the board on the throw of pyramid-shaped dice, which makes the Royal Game of Ur a distant cousin of backgammon, not of checkers.
Q 14Which form of checkers moves its pieces straight ahead and sideways, using all 64 squares?
Turkish draughts
Turkish draughts. It is the one major form that never went diagonal: each side lines up sixteen men on its second and third rows, and a promoted piece sweeps along ranks and files like a chess rook.
Q 15Early checkers was known in French as Fierges, a name it shared with which chess piece?
Queen
Queen. The medieval chess queen, the fierge or fers, was a weak piece that stepped one square diagonally, just as a checkers man does; only later did she become the strongest piece on the board.
Q 16Under tournament rules, what must a checkers player do after touching one of his own pieces?
Move that piece
Move that piece. A century ago, touching a piece that had no legal move cost the game outright; today's rules give one caution first, and a player may straighten a piece only after saying so.
Q 17In old checkers rules, what was it called when a player who missed a capture had the offending piece removed?
Huffing
Huffing. The opponent lifted off the piece that should have jumped and then made his own move, 'huff and move'; modern tournament rules drop the penalty and simply require the jump.
Q 18Which rule sets Italian draughts apart from the American game?
Men cannot capture kings
Men cannot capture kings. An Italian king can be taken only by another king, so men alone can never remove it from the board; the American rules let a man jump a king.
Q 19By which national name was international draughts, the main continental form of checkers, long known?
Polish
Polish. The name is a puzzle, because the game is not thought to come from Poland at all: French tradition has it devised in Paris in the 1720s.
Q 20In international draughts, when several capturing sequences are possible, which one must a player take?
The one taking most pieces
The one taking most pieces. Numbers alone count, so three men must be taken in preference to two kings, whereas American checkers lets a player choose whichever sequence he likes.
Senegal. His 1963 title match with the Soviet champion was called off and never played; Sy died in a car accident in 1978, and he was declared champion only in 1986.
Q 24Chess saves a player with no legal move by stalemate, but what happens to a blocked checkers player?
They lose the game
They lose the game. Checkers has no stalemate: a player wins either by capturing every enemy piece or by leaving the opponent's pieces with no move to make.
Q 25About how many possible positions does a game of American checkers have?
About 500 billion billion
About 500 billion billion. That is 5 followed by twenty zeros, which is why solving the game kept computers busy, on and off, for eighteen years; chess is vaster still.
Q 26Which mathematician and world chess champion invented a checkers game where captured pieces build towers?
Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker. His game, Lasca, went on sale in 1911 while he was still world champion; a jumped piece slides under its captor, and whoever owns the top piece commands the stack.
Q 27Which Edgar Allan Poe story opens by ranking draughts above 'the elaborate frivolity of chess' as a test of intellect?
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Poe argues that chess rewards mere attention, while in draughts, with its simple moves, only sharper insight wins; he imagines an endgame of four kings to prove it.
Q 28Damath, a variant using numbered chips and maths principles, is popular in which country?
Philippines
The Philippines. The name fuses dama, the local form of checkers, with maths; a Sorsogon schoolteacher, Jesus Huenda, devised it for his pupils, and the education department now promotes it nationwide.
Q 29Which Russian checkers variant lets you make your opponent's moves as well as your own?
Stavropol
Stavropol. On any turn a player may make a move for the opponent instead of moving a piece of his own; Bashni, by contrast, is the Russian game in which captured men are stacked under their captor.
Q 30Whose programmers' handbook helped Christopher Strachey get the first checkers program running?
Alan Turing
Alan Turing. Strachey, a Harrow schoolmaster, had failed to get the program working on a London machine in 1951; with Turing's handbook he rewrote it for a bigger computer, where it soon played complete games.