The history of draughts goes back not hundreds but thousands of years! Find out how one of the oldest board games in the world was created and why it still captivates even the most outstanding minds today.

Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, Leo Tolstoy, Fryderyk Chopin, and Napoleon Bonaparte are just some of the great figures who devoted their free time to playing draughts or checkers. Where does this unique game come from?

“Checkers” and “Draughts” are two names for the same family of strategy board games. They share one rule in common: the player captures the opponent’s pieces by “jumping over” them. “Checkers” is the American name, and “Draughts” comes from Great Britain and is used in many English-speaking countries.

Checkers has a fascinating and rich history, the origins of which can be traced back to…

Ancient Egypt — this is where it all (probably) began

Researchers still don’t fully agree on the specific date and place where draughts originated, and we may never solve that riddle. Although its true age is uncertain, we can assume that checkers is as old as civilization. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?

Ancient Egypt was the cradle of board games, and we can consider them the basis for modern checkers. Let’s go back to at least 2700 B.C., to the Old Kingdom and the age of the pyramid builders.

Thanks to archaeological excavations, we know that a board game called Senet was played back then. The Egyptians believed it was created by Thoth — the god of wisdom and the creator of writing (hieroglyphs).

Checkers stones were also found from that era. Today, the British Museum in London displays ancient Egyptian checkers boards found in burial chambers by archaeologists.

Other theories about the origin of draughts

  • Before those excavations were discovered, people believed checkers originated in the Alquerque game, which entertained Egyptians around 1400 B.C. The rules of Alquerque, played on a 5x5 board, are very similar to the checkers rules known today. The game was also mentioned under the name El-Quirkat in the Arabic book of songs, Kitab al-Aghani, around 950 AD.

  • We can also find checkers-like games in Greek mythology. During the siege of Troy, Palamedes is said to have invented the game Patteia, which the Romans turned into the game of brigands, Latrunculi. Many researchers associate the ancient Roman game of Latrunculi with modern draughts.

  • There is also archaeological evidence that before 1400 B.C., a similar game was played in the ancient city-state of Ur (in present-day Iraq). The board found there resembles a present-day checkerboard.

We cannot say for certain whether only one of these sources — or all of them together — contributed to the creation of modern draughts. But we know one thing for sure: this board game has an incredibly long history.

The Middle Ages: checkers entered European salons

Before modern checkers evolved from these ancient origins, many improvements and changes were made to the game. The entire transformation of draughts into the version we know today took a long time.

The Egyptian version of the game had gained enormous popularity, and this form of entertainment remained unchanged for thousands of years, cherished widely across cultures.

Not until 1100, after the long heyday of the Egyptian game Alquerque, did a man of French origin decide it was worth adapting it to play on a chessboard. He also increased the number of pieces in the game from 5 to 12 — the first major change to the rules in hundreds of years. The modified version of Alquerque was named Ferses.

Checkers in the works of classic writers

Plato, Homer, and Boccaccio all have one thing in common: they mentioned the game of checkers in their works.

Some went to sleep, some played cards, and others still played checkers. Dijon sat down to checkers

— wrote Giovanni Boccaccio in the Decameron, dated 1350–1353. The game of checkers was also mentioned by the popular Spanish writer Antonio de Torquemada in the mid-16th century.

The first checkers books we know of were written and published in what is Spain today. Although no copy has survived, we know from indirect sources that the first written publication about checkers was released in Spanish in 1547 by Antonio de Torquemada.

The oldest preserved work about checkers dates back to 1591 and is kept in the National Library in Madrid. It was created by Pedro Ruiz Montero, known as “El Andaluz” — the Andalusian.

The first official rules of draughts

By the middle of the 16th century, people had access to books on draughts, and information about the game was widely shared.

It was not until the 1750s that the English mathematician William Payne defined the official rules of the game, publishing them in the book “An Introduction to the Game of Draughts” in 1756.

Since then, the game has been known in the United States as Checkers and in the United Kingdom as Draughts.

The official rules and nomenclature made draughts famous and renowned. Soon after, in 1840, the first World Championship in English Draughts took place. Along with the professionalization of the game, more attention was paid to tactics and strategy.

More than one kind of checkers

Today, there is more than one type of checkers game worldwide, including Brazilian Checkers (Brazilian Draughts), American Checkers (straight checkers), American Pool Checkers, Russian Shashki, and Canadian (144-square) checkers.

Undoubtedly, the 100-square checkers (International Draughts) is the most popular type of this board game, and its history is worth highlighting.

History of International Draughts

There are assumptions that checkers on a 10x10 board were played in the Netherlands as early as the 14th–15th centuries. The Dutch linguist Arie van der Stoep has shown in his publications that the 100-square checkerboard was widely known in the 17th century — though at that time each player started with only 15 stones.

At the beginning of the 18th century, checkers began to be commonly played in France, with pieces placed on the first four rows on each side.

The French called this game “le jeu de dames à la polonaise,” which can be loosely translated as “checkers based on the Polish model.” Where did that name come from, since today we more often call it international or simply 100-square draughts?

One legend says the creator of this type of checkers was a Polish officer and nobleman, Franciszek Żubr. The acclaimed mathematician Charles Marie de La Condamine wrote about this, claiming that Polish checkers, invented by a foreigner — a “Pole” — were played in 1723 in a Parisian cafe.

However, researchers propose a different explanation for the term “Polish checkers.” The word “Polish” (“poolse” in Dutch) was then a synonym for something strange or funny. Since the Dutch had played checkers with 15 stones up to that point, a version with 20 stones seemed… strange to them.

  • The creation of this variant is confirmed by the first written publication, “Coups de parties de Dames de la Polonaise,” by Laclef, published in France in 1740.
  • Since then, more works on the subject have appeared, including “Traité du Jeu de Dames” by the famous French chess player André D. Philidor, and “Essai sur le jeu de Dames” by the Frenchman C. Manoury in 1770.
  • Interestingly, in the second edition of his book in 1787, C. Manoury proposed a way of writing down notation and positions in Polish draughts that is still valid today.

Important dates in the history of contemporary draughts

  • The first World Championship in International Draughts (100-square) took place in 1885 — Dr. A. Dussaut of France won the world champion title.
  • Until World War II, the fight for the “crown” was contested between the Dutch and the French.
  • 1947 — the establishment of the FMJD (Fédération Mondiale du Jeu de Dames, World Draughts Federation), founded by four federations: France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland.
  • Since 1948, the World Draughts Federation has organized championships every two years.
  • The women’s world championship started much later, in 1973 — the first world champion was Elena Michałowskaya of Russia.

Other official World Checkers Championships under the auspices of the FMJD began in 1985 for Brazilian draughts, 1993 for Russian draughts, and 2014 for Turkish draughts. The most modern history of checkers is still being written today, by champions and enthusiasts alike.

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