The earliest precursor to checkers was unearthed in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, located in present-day Iraq, and has been dated to approximately 3000 BCE. However, the Game of Ur was a race game using dice and markers, more closely related to backgammon than to modern checkers. A more direct ancestor is Alquerque, a 5x5 board game played with 12 pieces per side that archaeologists have found evidence of in ancient Egypt dating to around 1400 BCE. Alquerque introduced the core mechanics of diagonal movement and capturing by jumping that define checkers today. The game spread throughout the Mediterranean through Greek and Roman civilizations, with writers such as Homer and Plato referencing similar games in their works. [Wikipedia, Checkers] [Wikipedia, Alquerque]
Around 1100 CE, an anonymous French innovator adapted Alquerque to be played on a standard chess board, expanding each side to 12 pieces and creating a game called Fierges (also recorded as Ferses). This version was affectionately known as Le Jeu Plaisant de Dames ("The Pleasant Game of Ladies"), as it was considered a refined social pastime. At this stage, capturing opponent pieces was optional rather than mandatory. By the 13th century, the rule of crowning pieces that reached the far row had already been established, borrowing the concept of the queen piece from chess. [Wikipedia, Draughts]
Around 1535, the mandatory capture rule was introduced in France, transforming the game into a more tactical and combative contest. This new version was called Jeu Force ("Strong Game"), while the older optional-capture version retained the name Le Jeu Plaisant de Dames. As early as the mid-1500s, books were written analyzing the game, and in 1756, English mathematician William Payne published a notable treatise on draughts that helped codify the rules as the game spread through Britain. By this time, the game was known as "Draughts" in England and would later become known as "Checkers" in America. [Wikipedia, Draughts]
The 19th century saw the rise of competitive checkers. Records show formal championship play beginning in Scotland around 1840, with Andrew Anderson and James Wyllie dominating early matches. Wyllie, often called the "father of draughts," and players such as Robert Martins became celebrated masters of the game. In 1847, a widely recognized formal championship match was contested between Anderson and Wyllie in Scotland, marking the beginning of organized world championship competition. Strategy books and problem collections became widely published, elevating checkers into a serious competitive discipline. [Wikipedia, World Checkers/Draughts Championship]
In 1952, Arthur Samuel wrote the first checkers-playing program for the IBM 701, making it one of the earliest artificial intelligence programs ever created. Samuel demonstrated the program on live television on February 24, 1956, to great public excitement. He coined the term "machine learning" in a landmark 1959 paper describing how the program could improve its own play through experience. In 1961, his program defeated the Connecticut state checkers champion, the fourth-ranked player in the country at the time. [Wikipedia, Arthur Samuel]
In 1989, Professor Jonathan Schaeffer at the University of Alberta developed Chinook, which became the first computer program to win a world championship against humans in any game. Chinook defeated top human players throughout the early 1990s. Schaeffer then devoted nearly 18 years to solving checkers completely. In July 2007, his team formally announced that checkers had been solved: with perfect play by both sides, the game of English draughts always ends in a draw. The proof required analyzing roughly 500 billion billion (5 x 1020) positions, making it the most complex game fully solved to date, approximately one million times more complex than Connect Four. [Wikipedia, Chinook] [Science, "Checkers Is Solved" (2007)]
Different regions developed their own variations of checkers, each with distinct rules and board sizes. English draughts (American checkers) uses an 8x8 board with 12 pieces per side, where uncrowned men can only move and capture forward and kings can move both directions. International draughts (also called Polish draughts) uses a 10x10 board with 20 pieces per side, where men can capture both forward and backward and kings are "flying kings" that can move any number of squares along a diagonal. Canadian checkers uses a 12x12 board with 30 pieces per side, significantly increasing strategic complexity. Turkish draughts allows pieces to move orthogonally rather than diagonally. Each variant has its own world championship and a dedicated global following. [Wikipedia, Draughts Variants]
Checkers is played on a square board divided into alternating light and dark squares. Only the dark squares are used for play. The board is positioned so that a dark square is in each player's bottom-left corner. Each player starts with 12 pieces (men) placed on the dark squares of the first three rows closest to them. The player with the darker pieces moves first in standard English draughts. Men move forward diagonally one square at a time to an empty dark square. [Wikipedia, English Draughts]
Capturing is mandatory in checkers. When a player's piece is diagonally adjacent to an opponent's piece with an empty square beyond it, the player must jump over the opponent's piece, removing it from the board. Multiple captures in a single turn are allowed and required if the jumping piece can continue capturing additional pieces. In English draughts (American checkers), uncrowned men can only capture forward, not backward. Only kings can capture in both directions. [Wikipedia, English Draughts Rules]
When a regular man reaches the farthest row on the opponent's side of the board, it is crowned and becomes a king. Kings gain the ability to move and capture both forward and backward diagonally. In some variants such as international draughts (played on a 10x10 board), kings become "flying kings" that can move any number of squares diagonally in a single move, similar to the bishop in chess. The promotion of pieces to kings dramatically changes the strategic balance of the game, as kings are far more mobile and difficult to trap than ordinary men. Promotion ends the player's turn; king powers take effect on the following move. [Wikipedia, King in Draughts]
A game of checkers ends in one of several ways. A player wins by capturing all of the opponent's pieces, or by leaving the opponent with no legal moves available. A draw occurs when neither player can force a win, most commonly when both sides hold only kings and neither can corner the other. The "three move repetition" rule also results in a draw if the same position arises three times in the same game. In high-level competitive play, draws are frequent among evenly matched players, a result confirmed by the mathematical proof that perfect play from both sides always ends in a draw. [Wikipedia, English Draughts]
One of the most distinctive rules in checkers is the mandatory capture. If a player has a capture available, they must take it, even if doing so leads to a disadvantageous position. This rule can be exploited strategically by setting up forced capture sequences that lead to multiple jumps or that push the opponent into a weaker board position. The mandatory capture rule is a key difference between checkers and chess, where players may freely decline to capture an opposing piece. In English draughts, when multiple captures are available on a single turn, the player may choose which sequence to take; there is no requirement to maximize the number of pieces captured. [Wikipedia, Mandatory Capture in English Draughts]
Checkers openings have been studied and catalogued extensively. The game begins with 12 pieces per side, and the opening phase establishes control of key squares. Historically, players could start from any legal position, an era called "Go As You Please" (GAYP). To reduce memorized advantages, competitive play introduced a two-move restriction in the 19th century, and modern tournaments use a three-move ballot, where the first three moves are drawn randomly from an approved list of opening sequences. Well-known named openings include the "Bristol," the "Edinburgh," the "Glasgow," and the "Alma." Strong openings typically contest the center, keep pieces coordinated, and avoid creating isolated or backward pieces that can be targeted. [Wikipedia, List of Checkers Openings]
The middle game of checkers involves precise calculation of forcing sequences. Common tactical motifs include the fork, where a single piece threatens to capture two opponent pieces on the next move. The shot is a sequence in which a player deliberately sacrifices one or more pieces to gain a large material or positional advantage elsewhere. The dyke is a diagonal chain of pieces used to control lines and restrict the opponent's mobility. Because capturing is mandatory, experienced players construct traps that exploit the forced-capture rule, luring the opponent into sequences that lead to multiple jumps. Top players routinely calculate six to ten moves ahead when evaluating tactical sequences. [Wikipedia, Draughts Tactics]
Checkers endgames are classified by the number and types of pieces remaining on the board. A lone king against a lone king is always a draw with correct play. Two kings against one can be a forced win if the stronger side can coordinate to trap the lone king in a corner or against the edge. The most celebrated endgame positions have historically been named: First Position, Second Position, and Third Position represent classical winning formations taught to students of the game. The Chinook program team built an endgame database covering all positions with eight or fewer pieces, which was an essential component of proving the game solved in 2007. Studying endgames is considered essential for competitive improvement, as a large proportion of games are decided in the final phase. [Wikipedia, Chinook]
This game offers three board sizes, each corresponding to a recognized variant of checkers. The 8x8 board (Easy) is standard English draughts, with 12 pieces per side. Kings move one square at a time in any diagonal direction, and men can only capture forward. The 10x10 board (Medium) corresponds to international draughts, which uses 20 pieces per side and introduces flying kings that travel any number of squares along a diagonal; men may also capture both forward and backward in this variant. The 12x12 board (Hard) is Canadian checkers, played with 30 pieces per side, which dramatically expands the game tree and demands longer strategic planning horizons. Each board size has its own established opening theory, named positions, and endgame tablebases developed over decades of competitive play. [Wikipedia, Canadian Checkers] [Wikipedia, International Draughts]
Checkers holds a unique place in the history of artificial intelligence. Arthur Samuel's 1952 checkers program on the IBM 701 was among the earliest self-learning programs ever built and pioneered the concept of machine learning. Jonathan Schaeffer at the University of Alberta began building Chinook in 1989, and it became the first computer program to win a world championship against humans in any game, defeating top players in formal competition. Schaeffer's team then worked from 1989 until 2007, using dozens of computers running nearly continuously, to prove the game completely. The published proof in the journal Science on July 19, 2007 confirmed that English draughts, with perfect play from both sides, is a draw. At the time of publication, checkers was described as roughly one million times more complex than Connect Four, making it the most challenging game solved to date. Chess, by comparison, remains unsolved. [Wikipedia, Solved Game] [Science, "Checkers Is Solved" (2007)]