Checkers

I have a big, flat board with lots of squares, all in a neat pattern. Some squares are light, and some are dark, like a checkerboard blanket. I also have little round pieces, like yummy, flat cookies. Half of them are one color, and half are another. They sit quietly on the dark squares, waiting for you. Do you want to play a game with me? We can make the pieces hop and jump all over my board. Hop, hop, hop. It is so much fun to slide from one square to another. Let’s see who can jump the most.

You can call me Checkers. I am a very, very old game. So old. Imagine a game that looks a lot like me being played a long, long, long time ago. It was in a faraway place called Ur, way back around the year 3000 BCE. That’s older than your grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa. Wow. Then, one of my ancestors, a game named Alquerque, was played in a sunny, sandy place called ancient Egypt around 1400 BCE. People had lots of fun playing it under the warm sun. I started to look like the game you know today a long, long time ago, in the 12th century. Some clever friends in a place called France decided it would be super fun to play me on a chessboard. That’s when I got my pretty light and dark squares.

Playing with me is so exciting today. Your little round pieces can jump right over your friend's pieces. Boing. You get to keep the pieces you jump over. When you get one of your pieces all the way across to the other side of my board, something very special happens. You get to stack another piece on top, like a crown. We shout, 'King me.' Your piece becomes a super-duper king piece that can move backward and forward. I love helping friends and families laugh and have fun together. Playing with me also helps your brain think and plan what to do next. It’s like a fun puzzle that makes you smart.