One of Humanity’s Oldest Games

When archaeologists excavated the ancient city of Ur in modern-day Iraq, they found game boards dating to approximately 3000 BC that appear designed for a checkers-like game. Five thousand years later, people around the world still play variations of the same fundamental concept: two players, a grid, and pieces that capture by jumping.

Ancient Origins (3000 BC – 1000 AD)

Ur and Mesopotamia

The oldest known checkers-like artifacts were found in the ruins of Ur, an ancient Sumerian city. Similar game boards have been found across Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. While the exact rules are unknown, the boards suggest a game involving diagonal movement and capturing.

Alquerque

By the time of the Moorish civilization in North Africa and Spain, a game called Alquerque (or Qirkat) was widely played. Alquerque used a 5×5 grid and rules remarkably similar to modern checkers:

  • Pieces captured by jumping over opponents
  • Captures were mandatory
  • The goal was to capture all enemy pieces

Alquerque is considered the direct ancestor of modern checkers. It was played throughout the Islamic world and spread to Europe during the Moorish occupation of Spain.

Medieval Europe: The Birth of Modern Checkers (12th–13th Century)

Around the 12th century in southern France, someone had the idea of playing Alquerque on a chess board (8×8 grid) instead of the traditional 5×5 board. This adaptation was transformative:

  • More squares meant more pieces (12 per player instead of 12 on 5×5)
  • More strategic depth from the larger playing field
  • The game could be played with chess/backgammon equipment, making it widely accessible

The French called this new game Jeu de Dames (“Game of Ladies”) or Fierges. The mandatory capture rule was added later, creating a version called Jeu Forcé, which is essentially modern checkers.

Spread Across Europe (13th–18th Century)

From France, the game spread across Europe, acquiring different names and regional variations:

  • England: Draughts (from Middle English “draught,” meaning to move)
  • Spain: Damas
  • Italy: Dama
  • Germany: Dame
  • Netherlands: Damspel

The game became enormously popular among all social classes. It was simpler to learn than chess, games were faster, and it could be played with improvised equipment.

The 10×10 Board

In the Netherlands during the 18th century, players developed a version on a 10×10 board with 20 pieces per player. This variant — International Draughts — added the “flying king” rule (kings can move multiple squares). It became the dominant form of draughts in continental Europe and remains so today.

Competitive Checkers (19th–20th Century)

The 19th century brought formal competition:

  • 1847: The first published checkers strategy book in English
  • 1847: The first recognized World Checkers Championship
  • Andrew Anderson (Scotland) became the first widely acknowledged champion
  • Marion Tinsley (USA, 1927–1995) dominated competitive checkers for decades, losing only 7 games in 45 years of championship play. Many consider him the greatest checkers player of all time.

Competitive checkers developed a rich body of opening theory, endgame analysis, and strategic principles, demonstrating that the game’s simplicity of rules belied deep strategic complexity.

Checkers and Computers

Checkers holds a unique place in the history of artificial intelligence:

  • 1952: Arthur Samuel at IBM created one of the first machine learning programs — it learned to play checkers by playing thousands of games against itself. This was a landmark in AI history.
  • 1990s: The Chinook program, developed by Jonathan Schaefer’s team at the University of Alberta, challenged Marion Tinsley for the world championship.
  • 1994: Tinsley vs. Chinook — the only world championship match between a human and a computer in any board game at the time. Tinsley withdrew due to illness (he was later diagnosed with cancer), and Chinook was declared champion.
  • 2007: Schaefer’s team solved checkers — proving mathematically that the game is a draw with perfect play from both sides. Checkers became the most complex game ever solved.

Checkers Today

Checkers remains one of the world’s most played board games:

  • Competitive play continues in both English Draughts (8×8) and International Draughts (10×10)
  • Online play has introduced the game to new generations
  • Educational value — checkers is widely used to teach strategic thinking, especially to young players
  • Variants keep the game fresh — from International Draughts to Canadian Checkers (12×12 board)

While chess may get more cultural attention, checkers has earned its place as one of humanity’s most enduring intellectual pastimes — simple enough for children to learn in minutes, deep enough that 5,000 years of play haven’t exhausted its possibilities.