Project 8x8 & 48 - #1 Turkish Checkers

 

I recently posed a question with the Abstract Nation on Facebook asking what were three games players preferred on an 8x8 checkerboard.

Not surprisingly there was a lot of commonality in answers and IMHO a few gems missed.

So over the coming weeks I’ll offer a few short reviews of what I see as the best games to be played on an 8x8 checkerboard with the added constraint you have only two sets of 24 pieces – basically you buy two matching common checker sets.

Oh, and before going farther a link to the Abstract Nation page -- https://www.facebook.com/groups/154116835214959 -- a great group to be part of.

Now for week one I have to point to an actual checker game – but not common American Checkers most are likely familiar with. While well-organized and sets commonly available I find that version of checkers particularly week.

A far better choice is Turkish Draughts (Checkers) widely played in the Middle-East, where it is known as Dama.

It differentiates with most other games of the Checkers family – and there are many with many countries having versions with slightly different rules -- because pieces move straight forward or sideways, not diagonally.

On an 8×8 board, 16 men are lined up on each side, in two rows. The back rows are vacant.

Men move orthogonally forwards or sideways one square, capturing by means of a jump; they cannot move or capture backwards or diagonally. 

The movement creates an immediate dynamism here not seen in the American version.

Then play ramps up another notch when a piece reaches the last row and promotes to a king. In Turkish Checkers the king (Dama) flies, meaning it moves as a rook in Chess.

Kings can move any number of empty squares orthogonally forwards, backwards or sideways. A king captures by jumping over a single piece any number of empty squares away, landing on any open square beyond the captured piece along a straight line.

A flying king can jump any piece along a path as long as there’s an empty square on the other side of it. The king doesn’t have to be right next to the enemy piece and it doesn’t have to land on the square immediately after it.

As you can likely visualize a king can crisscross a board in a hurry creating havoc for an opponent.

If you are looking to play a traditional Checker game Turkish Draughts or International Checkers are the best choices and since International Checkers is played on a 10x10 board it doesn’t fit this current undertaking, so try out the Turkish game.