Checkers

Hello there. Have you ever seen a square battlefield with red and black squares? That’s my home. I set up little round soldiers on each side, waiting for a command. Your job is to be the general, thinking hard and planning your next move. Hop, hop, hop. Your pieces can only move forward, diagonally, one space at a time. But if you see an enemy piece right in front of you with an empty space behind it… JUMP. You’ve captured it and can set it off to the side. The goal is to capture all of your opponent’s pieces before they capture all of yours. It’s a quiet, clever game of thinking ahead, where your brain gets to be the hero. Do you know who I am? I am Checkers.

My story started a very, very long time ago, even before there were castles or kings as you know them. One of my oldest relatives was a game played in a city called Ur way back around 3000 BCE. Imagine that. Later, around 1400 BCE, people in ancient Egypt played a game called Alquerque that was a lot like me, played on a board with lines connecting the spaces. But I didn't get my famous checkered board until much later. Around the 12th century, in a place called France, someone had a brilliant idea. They decided to play the game on a chessboard. They gave each player 12 pieces, and suddenly, I started to look just like I do today. That’s when I got my most exciting rule. If you can get one of your little pieces all the way to the other side of the board, you get to shout, 'King me.'. Your piece gets a crown—another piece stacked on top—and becomes a super-powered King that can move backward and forward. My name changed depending on where I traveled. In England, they called me 'Draughts,' but in America, you know me as 'Checkers' because of my lovely board.

For hundreds of years, I’ve brought people together. Grandparents play with their grandchildren, friends challenge each other on rainy afternoons, and now you can even play me on a computer. I love watching two people sit across from each other, their faces full of concentration as they plan their next jump. In 2007, a team of smart people even taught a computer how to play a perfect game of me every single time. But I’m not just about winning or losing. I’m about exercising your brain, like a workout for your mind. I teach you to be patient, to look for patterns, and to think about what might happen next. Every time you sit down to play, you are a part of my long and amazing history. So, find a friend, set up my board, and get ready for an adventure. It’s your move.