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Checkers Around the World Invented Checkers Variants
Lasca or Laskers Checkers Game
Another unique and little known checkers/draughts
variant is an abstract checkers board game
involving ‘towers’ or
columns of ‘men’ called
Lasca (Laska or Laskers).
Lasca Game History
World Chess master, Emanuel Lasker, invented
this checkers variant during the early 1900’s.
The chess champion was born in Berlinchen,
Germany, in 1868. Though a student of mathematics
at university, Emanuel Lasker also had interests
in the natural sciences, philosophy and various
types of games.
A master of chess, Lasker is perhaps best known
for his brilliant strategy against world champion,
Wilhelm Steinitz, in a chess match in 1894
where Lasker won the championship and the title.
During the next 27 years, Emanuel Lasker amazingly
held the world champion title due to his mastery
in the game and his ‘psychological’ method
of play in which he considered both the subjective
qualities of his opponents and the objective
requirements of his strategic position on the
game board. Lasker paid little attention to
the opening of the game, was extremely resourceful
in the middle game and was noted as playing
the endgame at the highest level of expertise;
however, despite his excellent skill in the
chess game, he unfortunately lost his title
to José Raúl Capablanca in a
championship match in 1921. In 1925, Emanuel
Lasker wrote “Lasker’s
Manual of Chess”. This treatise became
well known in chess circles for the philosophical
tone of its content. He also published other
books on board and card games. It was during
his reign as Chess Grandmaster that he invented
the checkers variant, LASCA.
Rules of Lasca Checkers Game:
~ Checker Game Board ~
- This unique Lasca checkers game variant
is played by two opponents on a 7 x 7 standard
checkered board of alternating light and
dark squares.
- Lasca is played on the light squares
so that only 25 of the 49 squares are actually
used during the game.
- The checker board is positioned squarely
between the two players with a light square
at each corner.
- Each opponent uses 11 checkers, draughts
men or simply pieces of contrasting light
and dark colors such as black and red or
red and yellow so that the ‘men’ are
distinguishable on the game board.
- Lasca checkers should be flat so that
they can be stacked into columns and one
side should be different from the other;
if they are symmetrical, then one side should
be marked in some way to distinguish it
from the other side such as a daub of paint
or a symbol.
- Lasca game pieces are as follows:
- Soldier ~ a single man with a plain
face showing upwards.
- Officer ~ a single man with the marked
face uppermost.
- Column ~ a stack of two or more soldiers
or officers of one color; the column may
also contain ‘captured
prisoners’ of the opponent’s
underneath the officer or soldier.
- Commander ~ the top man of the column
and the only piece to determine who owns
and moves the column.
Game Note:
The Lasca Association in Cambridge (UK) originally
designed a more elegant game board for LASCA
than the standard checkered chessboard because,
while it is topologically the same, it reduced
the size of the unused black squares and could
easily be rendered on a piece of cardboard.
   
This Lasca game board has also changed
the squares to circles and the dark squares
have become the background so that the new
board does not really resemble its chessboard
predecessor overly much.
~ Object of Lasca Checkers Game ~
- The game objective is much the same
as in Checkers/Draughts in that each player
is trying to capture all the opponent’s
pieces or block the remaining pieces so
that he/she can no longer make any other
legal moves.
~ Game Starting Position ~
- At the start of the Lasca checkers game,
the single men or soldiers are positioned
in the three rows on the white squares
at each end of the game board with the
plain side facing up.
- Once the soldiers are on the move, the
may be promoted to officers or are captured
and soon a violent battle may rage on the
board, with many opportunities and possibilities
for subtle tactics and strategies.
~ Game Moves & Captures ~
- When the play has begun, the pieces
move forward diagonally right or left one
square at a time, just as in Checkers or
Draughts.
- Likewise, the Lasca game pieces capture
by jumping over the opposing man into an
unoccupied square beyond the opposition,
but what follows is quite different from
either Checkers or Draughts (and to some
players this aspect makes Lasca a more
exciting game, but of course, that is according
to individual preference).
- A captured man is not removed from the
board, but is picked up by the attacker
as a prisoner and placed under the capturing
man as he leaps over the opposing piece.
- With each move, the opponents continue
to capture other pieces on the board and
stack them into larger columns since no
men are ever removed from the game board;
gradually there are less and less pieces
on the board.
- One aspect to note is that there is
no possibility of a column consisting of
alternating colors such as black white
black.
- As in the game of Checkers/Draughts,
if a player is in a position to do so,
he/she must capture an opposing piece.
- If there is an opportunity to continue
capturing, then the jumping sequence must
be followed until completed.
- This rule is extremely important in
LASCA since it allows a player to force
his/her opponent into disadvantageous situations:
   
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