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Checkers Schools

The Future of Checkers/Draughts
Damier Club Wattrelos Le Jeu de dames
Wattrelos Checkers School Club
France APPRENDRE LE JEU DE DAMES A L'ECOLE.

Professor at chalkboard

Learn the game of checkers in school.

ENSEIGNER LE JEU DE DAMES EN CLASSE OU EN CLUB
Teaching the game of checkers in class or in the club.

Gilbert Charles, the president of the Wattrelos Checkers Club, initiated a proposal to incorporate the game of checkers into the school system. As in numerous other countries, he felt that French children would benefit from learning the basic skills required to play the game and then encourage these young players to pursue game strategies and techniques and move beyond the basic checkers rules into various game combinations with set openings as well as midgame and endgame plays.

Charles possesses extensive experience in this specialty of checkers and regularly gives lectures at elementary, middle and high school levels. Gilbert Charles has also written a book on this topic, which is soon to be published and will serve as a good reference in his classes or to any young checkers enthusiast.

His course or checkers school program is designed as one separate from that used at the checkers club for gamers and certain materials are essential to have in the school classroom. For the whole class to see the game concepts, it is necessary to have a large magnetic checkerboard with magnetic checkers that can be moved on the board. The students should each have a slate, felt, cloth, rubber, pencil, a numbered checkerboard and a set of 40 checkers pieces. Since children have a tendency to lose the checkers, Charles has even suggested that the plastic bottle cap inserts are a good alternative as pieces. Also, he remarks that some supplies can be obtained through the Wattrelos Checkers Club.

Therefore, the materials of this checkers school program are not cost prohibitive and for this reason, the program would simply require the interest and commitment of the teachers and the school checkers program advisers.

The purpose behind this program is not just as a casual, fun activity during break but is intended to be part of the curriculum to stimulate brain activity. The goal is to work parts of the children’s brain in a playful way without them realizing that they are doing it. The focus will be to develop memory, reasoning, concentration and visual spatial abilities, as well as other fundamental life skills.

To get the best results from Gilbert Charles’ experience is to vary the work between individual and collective group activities. Let each student discover the answers or at least try to figure out the answers before offering solutions so that each individual is motivated to think during the checkers school exercises. Encourage each student to work independently at times, even if s(he) is struggling and always make sure to congratulate each student when s(he) comes up with the right checkers school answers or solutions.

In order for each checkers student to find a solution to a problem, the child should:

  • Focus

  • Consider all the possibilities.

  • Look visually at the whole checkerboard, do not touch the checkers.

  • Achieving good cross board skills helps a checkers player to become a very strong opponent.

  • Note the solution on the slate, then remove the piece.

  • Annotate the solution in pencil in a journal for future reference.
It is important to develop the checkers school course properly by considering the following aspects of the program:

  • Rules, as in any discipline, it is paramount to know the regulations of the game, so the instructor or teacher must know the International Draughts or Checkers rules well; these are offered by the club under règles internationales.

  • Manoury Notation, this is the language of Checkers or International Draughts and will allow a real development within the course and again it is important to understand how this language works in a game of checkers.

  • Tactics, to play checkers, it is essential to master the various combinations.

    • These can be very simple (2 times), complicated (3 to 5 times), very complicated (6 to 10 times), and with extreme complexity (over 10 times).

    • You should know that time is equal to two movements (white, then black). A combination in 10 time means that this is a combination in 20 movements! In checkers school class, the instructor or teacher tries to familiarize students with direct combinations (2 times), though the best can probably learn to perform 3 or 4 times.

    • To get there, it is necessary to visualize the moves on the checkerboard mentally, without actually touching the checkers. This is an amazing skill to accomplish well and takes a lot of anticipation and accuracy.

    • This is a checkerboard skill that must be practiced regularly in order to develop the ability within a game situation; charts or schematics can be used to learn game combinations.


    The Gilbert Charles scholastic checkers program also offers exercises and game solutions that can be utilized to develop checkerboard skills in the checkers school classroom and as practice sessions at home.

    School Competitions

    Of course, it is not merely sufficient to learn the checkers game and develop individual abilities inherent within the game. It is also extremely important to put the acquired checkers knowledge from the different checkers school classes into practice and to accomplish this it is essential to organize some school competitions. There are several different types of competition and mini-tournaments that can easily be organized within the class, the school or inter-school.

    • The championship of the class after six months:

    • Option A: Teams of four players who meet to play a mini-tournament.

    • Option B: Teams of twelve players who meet to play a mini-tournament.

    • The championship of the class on a 1/2 day: The principle is to play a round robin with players who possess the same number of points.

    • The championship of the school on a 1/2 day:

    • Option A: The best of each class meet.

    • Option B: All students who attend the school and wish to participate.

  • Between classes in the school on a 1/2 day:

  • Option A: Teams of four players who meet to play a round robin.

  • Option B: Teams of twelve players who meet to play a round robin.

  • The inter-school: Same principles as the inter-classes except here it is between various different schools in the district.

  • The championship of the Academy: It takes place once a year, on a Saturday afternoon in March, April or May. It is a competition between schools, colleges or high schools, in teams of four players. Registration is not free but low. A school may enter several checkers teams. Six games are usually played in the afternoon.
Teaching checkers lessons in the classroom Learning checkers lessons in the classroom

Teaching checkers lessons in the classroom.


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