CHESMAYNE
673-dona
the years of my youth
Draughts
Alongside traditional chess and
played on the exact same board is the game of draughts or, checker’s. The 12 mps to
a side move diagonally and forward on the board on the same coloured XD
(dark) cells from their initial starting positions (ISP) on
ranks 1, 2 and 3. On reaching the top
ranks they undergo a metamorphosis becoming kinglets, this being indicated by
placing one draught on top of a similar draught that has been captured or,
by turning the mp to its obverse position, upon which the symbol for a crown or,
the royal letter ‘K’ has been embossed onto its circular disk.
The disks are usually about 35mm in diameter, 6mm in
depth and serrated on the circumference which allow the checker’s to be gripped
between thumb and finger. The 12 draught’s are placed on the XD (dark) cells of the board,
the XL (light) cells being left
vacant and unused during a contest.
These diminutive combatants are permitted to move forward one cell diagonally but when capturing are allowed to vault over a
diagonally placed adversary. This means that the draught moves two cells forward on the capturing
manoeuvre, the captured MP/mp being removed from the playing area and kept in
reserve for when a mp is promoted to a MP (kinglet). All mps start off being of equal value and all can become of equal
value once again on reaching rank 8 (8 x 8 board). On being promoted the kinglets are allowed to
move one cell diagonally in any direction and may capture in the same manner in
which they existed prior to their new emergent state. The contest is concluded when all the
MPs/mps of either :A
or :B have been captured. There are two types of playing piece in the Chesmayne version of this game. DR01 to DR12 (the initial set of mps which
start the game) and K01 to K12 (the kinglets) to which the mps may be
promoted. The MPs/mps used in this game-tree (:gt) are referred to as a
‘draught’ in
Draughts or Checkers can be
played on an 8 x 8 board. Each side has
12 pieces each and the dark (:A) side moves first. In Chesmayne the
draughts are individually numbered from D01 to D12 and the kinglets from K01 to
K12. The game appears to have been invented in
the south of France during the 12th century.
Polish draughts is played on a 10 x 10 board. A version of draughts/checkers was played in
Below: Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in the case of the
leaping fish.
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Coke
Ennyday’s (Douglas Fairbanks) game of chess is interrupted by the cries for help
from the Little Fish Blower.
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To my considerable
surprise I recently managed to find a copy of this bizarre film. As you can see the game is unfortunately
draughts not chess but never mind.
It’s too good to miss. This and
other rarities are available from SYLPHE, 139, rue Manin, 75019 Paris. Please note that it is an uncensored
version. |
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American Checker Federation
- The official site of the ACF - The American Checker Federation (ACF) is
located in Petal,
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Draughts is a very ancient game indeed,
the origins of which, like Chess, aren’t completely clear. However, early forms of Alquerque, its
venerable ancestor, have been found in The image shows a modern commercial version of the game owned by the author. |
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The Madagascan
game of Fanorona is a descendant of Alquerque. It seems to have been invented
around 1680 AD and is still played today.
Board shown is a modern German version from the author’s collection. |
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Sometime
later, around 1100, possibly in the South of
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The
compulsory rule forcing a player to take whenever possible was introduced in The board to the left was made around the turn of the century. It is of a common design being able to fold in half to form a box containing the pieces, when the board is stored. An English Draughts board is on the outside and a Backgammon board is marqueted within. From the author’s parent’s collection. |
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Draughts is known
by different names around the world:
Most
of the rest of Western Europe took to playing a different development of ‘Le
Jeu Plaisant De Dames’ which appeared in Paris in 1727 and which is now the internationally
recognised game of Polish Draughts or Continental Draughts. This game is
superior in complexity to English draughts by virtue of the fact that it is
played on a board ten squares by ten squares and that capturing moves have an
extended scope. It isn’t believed to have been invented in
Some areas of
Above
is a typical Sri Lankan board with the requisite 144 squares
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And
here are a couple of Sri Lankans playing on a home made board in
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Masters
Traditional Games sell a Giant
Draughts set for the garden and/or public entertainment.
Free rules for some
variants of the game can be found at Masters
Traditional Games.
International Draughts An
excellent page on the main game of today.
In
After 18 years of practice, computers have finally conquered the game of
draughts.
The result, described as a “truly
significant advance in artificial intelligence”, is a draughts programme which
cannot be beaten.
Draughts, known as checkers in
The game is essentially simple, but working out responses to every
possible move meant sifting through 500 billion-billion (five followed by 20
zeroes) different play positions.
An average of 50 computers were run together every day for years at a
time to complete the programme, known as Chinook. At peak periods, more than 200 computers
were in use.
Scientists led by Dr Jonathan Schaeffer, from the
Chinook now contains all the information needed to predict the best
move to play in every situation of a game. Even making no mistakes, the best an
opponent taking on the programme could achieve would be a draw.
Dr Schaeffer, whose team describe the programme in the journal Science,
said: “I think we’ve raised the bar - and raised it quite a bit - in terms of
what can be achieved in computer technology and artificial intelligence. With Chinook, we’ve pushed the envelope about
one million times more than anything that’s been done before.”
Dr Schaeffer, who chairs the University of Alberta’s Department of
Computing Science, started the Chinook project in 1989, with a view to winning
the human world checkers championship.
Chinook lost the championship match in 1992, but won two years later,
becoming the first computer programme to win a human world championship in any
game - a feat recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records.