Best of checkers

Summer is a time to relax, or at least we like to think it is.

A board game is a great option, and most well-planned trips to the lake have a game, or two, as part of the paraphernalia that must be packed in the car.

Checkers is a game which was always in a camper cupboard, alongside a crib board of course.

It’s about as easy an abstract strategy board game to learn as there is, and while it may lack a level of depth which has many think it easy, my constant loses to my grandfather suggests there are secrets to success too.

So it is my suggestion that when packing games for the summer remember checkers, but opt for International Checkers played on a 10X10 board.

To begin with the addition of 20 spaces adds some new challenges in terms of maintaining a workable defence across a wider battlefield.

But it is piece movement and capture which really set International Checkers at a level above the common 8X8 game.

The Moves of the Men: Checkers pieces can move forward on each empty square to the left or to the right. When these pieces reach the last line on the opponent’s side they become kings.

“Captures: In International checkers, maximum captures are obligatory, which means that if a player has more than one path to jump to capture his opponent’s pieces, he must take that path that will affect the most capture of his opponent’s pieces,” details checkershistory.com via boardgamegeek.com

“Captures by the Men: Men can affect capture by moving forward or backward and jumping over a single piece of the opponent provided that the said piece is adjacent to it and the following square is empty. If the man can jump again from the arrival square to effect another capture, then it must do so.”

The ability to capture backward completely changes the dynamics of the game. It opens things up to significantly longer capture chains if a defence is not solid.

Of course as with almost all checker variants the ability to sacrifice a piece to force a compulsory capture leaving your opponent for a deadlier counterstrike is the core strategy, but be careful, the backward capture looms as a powerful weapon for both sides.

The king too gets a definite power boost.

Kinged pieces can move across multiple squares on the two diagonals that cross their position for so long as these squares are open, in a rule known as the ‘flying kings’, which makes them move essentially like a bishop in what we see as regular chess.

The ability to long move of course puts the king into the fray quickly as it can traverse the length of the board on a single turn.

As powerful as the ability to ‘fly’ is, the king’s real power, superpower more correctly, comes in capture.

“Captures by a King: A kinged piece can capture an opponent’s piece if it is on the same diagonal where it is positioned provided that the squares between them are empty and that the square beyond the piece to be captured is also empty. The king can stop on any square within the same diagonal line and if another capture can be effected from any of these squares, then it must continue to do so,” detailed the site.

Think about that. A king moving hither and yon across the board decimating an opponent.

Kings in checkers are always a huge asset toward victory, but in International Checkers they can easily tip the balance.

The capture of a common piece is more strategic, and the flying kings so dynamic that the game becomes a gem.

In the meantime find, or fashion a 10X10 board, add 20 pieces of each colour (five per row in the four rows closest each player), and give International Checkers a try. It will amaze you how dynamic the game can be..