Checkers

Checkers

Starting position for American checkers on an 8×8 checkerboard; Black (red) moves first.
Years active	at least 5,000
Genres	Board game Abstract strategy game Mind sport
Players	2
Setup time	<1 minute
Playing time	Casual games usually last 10 to 30 minutes; tournament games last anywhere from about 60 minutes to 3 hours or more.
Chance	None
Age range	6+
Skills	Strategy, tactics
Synonyms	draughts (or drafts) chequers

Checkers^{[note 1]} (American English), also known as draughts (/drɑːfts, dræfts/; 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.^[1] 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".^[2]

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 and Turkish draughts, both on an 8x8 board; and International draughts, played on a 10×10 board – with the latter 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.

American checkers was weakly solved in 2007 by a team of Canadian computer scientists led by Jonathan Schaeffer. From the standard starting position, perfect play by each side would result in a draw.

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