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Two Players Checkers
The Checkered Past
The checkered past about two players checkers.
The game of checkers is not a modern game;
in the checkered past, it has ancient roots
in the past. Though numerous varying opinions
about the history of checkers past exist,
a general consensus is that the leap capture
component of this simple game existed in
a primitive game several thousand years ago.
The earliest form of checkers past, some say
was a game uncovered in an archaeological dig
at Ur in the country we now call Iraq. It is
suggested through carbon dating that this game
was played ca. 3000 B.C.E. However, in the
past this ancient game was not quite the same
as checkers, as we know it, in that the board
was somewhat different, the players did not
use the same number of ‘checkers’ or
playing pieces and the exact rules are not
known.
However, in a similar time period, another
primitive game of antiquity was unearthed.
Stones, shells or large beads became the checkers’ pieces
used by African peoples in their ‘checkerboard’ of
sand with lines drawn into it and the ‘checker’ was
captured by leaping over it. The difference
in this early game, though, was that the game
piece could be moved in any direction and the
play did not include promotion.
Checkers Past
The earliest game of Checkers past (United
States and Canada) or Draughts (Great Britain,
Australia and New Zealand) was created somewhere
between 2000 and 1500 B.C.E. when the nature
of promotion was incorporated into the play
in Africa. Suddenly, the rules changed so
that moving and taking backwards could only
be accomplished when a checker had penetrated
into the opponent’s
king rank. This new game of Checkers or Draughts was
played on a latticed board with 25 points and the two
opponents each started with twelve checkers or playing
pieces. So began the play of checkers in the checkered
past.
This board was inscribed into the roofing slabs of
the Temple of Luxor, which was originally built on
the western Nile ca 1500 B.C.E. Checkers was apparently
a popular game played by the Egyptian pharaohs and
other members of ancient past society.
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