Ludography
Draughts cover

1985 · Board game

Draughts

Strategy board game

Released
31 December 1985
Platforms
MSXZX Spectrum
Genres
Board game
Developers
—
Publishers
Magnetic Magazines
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
Non-fiction
Languages
English

About

Checkers (North American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers is developed from alquerque. The term "checkers" derives from the checkered board which the game is played on, whereas "draughts" derives from the verb "to draw" or "to move".

The most popular forms of checkers in Anglophone countries are American checkers (also called English draughts), which is played on an 8×8 checkerboard; Russian draughts, Turkish draughts and Armenian draughts, all of them on an 8×8 board; and international draughts, played on a 10×10 board – with the last widely played in many countries worldwide. There are many other variants played on 8×8 boards. Canadian checkers and Malaysian/Singaporean checkers (also locally known as dam) are played on a 12×12 board.

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Development

The ancestry of checkers / draughts remains shrouded in uncertainty. Popular accounts frequently trace the game back thousands of years to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, though such claims warrant careful examination. Archaeological discoveries in Ur, an ancient Mesopotamian city in present-day Iraq, have yielded game boards dating to approximately 3000 BCE. However, characterizing these as early checkers boards stretches credibility.

The Game of Ur employed seven markers per player and three tetrahedral dice, functioning as a race game more akin to modern backgammon than to checkers. The gameplay mechanics of these games bear little resemblance to the jumping and capturing that define draughts.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
ZX Spectrum31 December 1985Europe

Editions and related releases

Included in
30 Games

Games like this

Collections1 collection

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.