In Checkers and Draughts you find a variety of different checkers/draught games from all over the world. They all share the same principal of rules, but added new rules or modified existing ones. Over the years, many countries developed their own version of checkers/draughts and adjusted the rules, board size and color of pieces. Books were written on the game in Spain as early as the mid 1500's and in England a mathematician name William Payne wrote his own treatise on Draughts in 1756. In Great Britain the game was called 'Draughts'. Now the rules for checkers were set and the game was exported to England and America. The older version was considered more of a social game for women and was called 'Le Jeu Plaisant De Dames'. The French called this version 'Jeu Force'. It was soon found that making jumps mandatory made the game more challenging.

It was then called 'Fierges' or 'Ferses'.

This meant expanding the number of pieces to 12 on a side. It was a game of such popularity that it was played all over the western world for thousands of years.Īround 1100 a Frenchman got the idea of playing the game on a chess board. Historians have traced it as far back as 1400 B.C.

In Ancient Egypt a game called Alquerque, which had a 5X5 board was a common and much played game. However, the game used a slightly different board, a different number of pieces and no one is quite certain of the exact rules. Carbon dating makes it appear that this game was played around 3000 B.C. It is thought that the earliest form of checkers was a game discovered in an archeological dig at Ur in Iraq. Variety of different Checkers/Draughts games from all over the worldĬheckers or Draughts, as it is known in Great Britain, has ancient roots.

Checkers ! download the new for apple