Draughts

Draughts, a game played with 'men' on a checkered board, like a chess-board, of sixty-four black and white squares, is of unknown origin. Though Strutt (Sports and Pastimes) calls it a modern invention, other authorities consider it very old. It was certainly played in Europe in the 16th century, and in 1668 a treatise on the game was published in Paris by Mallet. The Greeks and Romans had a similar game, and the Egyptians are represented on monuments as engaged in some such amusement. In France it is called Jeu des Dames, a name which appears in Dambrod, the old Scotch name for the draught-board, as also in the German Damenbrett and Damenspiel.

The figure represents the board, numbered in the usual method for registering games. Two players, each having a set of twelve men—one set white, the other black (or round and square, or distinguished in any other way), sit opposite each other, having their men arranged on squares 1 to 12 and 21 to 32 respectively. The men can be placed either on the black or white squares, but the whole must be placed on one colour only. Whichever colour is used, however, the single corners 4 and 29 must be at the players' left hand.

The object of the game is to clear off the opponent's men altogether from the board, or to so shut them up that they cannot be moved. Generally the black men play first, and as the men are changed each game, the first move becomes alternate. The movements of the men are very simple. Each player alternately moves one man at a time diagonally forward, always keeping on the same coloured squares. When an enemy's man stands in the way, no move can be made unless there be a vacant square immediately beyond, into which the man can be lifted, in which case the man leaped over is 'taken,' and removed from the board; and so on, till the game is lost and won, or drawn. When a man on either side has succeeded in making his way to the opposite side of the board, he becomes crowned, which is done by putting another man on the top of him; and he can then move in any diagonal direction, but always only one square at a time.

When the men are reduced to a few on each side, a somewhat mysterious element called the move comes into play. This may be explained by the following case: Suppose only one man left on each side, one on square 2, the other on square 10; should it be the turn of the man on 2 to move, he must obviously be taken and lose the game. The one on 10 is said to have the advantage of the move. The only chance for a man with the move against him is to get into a double corner, when the game is drawn. When there are several men left on either side, then it becomes a matter of nice calculation and great importance to find which side has the move, on account of the advantage arising therefrom. Many treatises have been written on the theory of the move and the method of calculating it.

James Wyllie ('the herd-laddie') was champion of the world as well as of Scotland till 1895, when he was defeated by Ferrie of Greenock, who in 1896 was defeated by Jordan. Famous English players have been Smith, Richmond, Beattie, Gardner, Jewett, Christie, and Birkenshaw; in America (where the game is called checkers), Freeman, Barker, and Reed.

A standard book is that by Joshua Sturges (1800), revised by J. A. Kear (1896); another, Andrew Anderson's, especially as re-edited by R. McCulloch (1888). Other writers are 'Berkeley,' Gould, Spayth, Barker, Robertson, Bowen, Hill, and Lees.