History of checkers (in illustrations)

- Evolution? - the Chief has quickened. - Something new?

- French invention. I tried to figure it out. If, for example, we take an earthworm and instead immediately slip an African rhino, then everyone will see that they have been inflated. But if the same focus is stretched for a long time, then no one will notice.

That's the whole thing: whoever saw the worm, they all died long ago, and whoever met the rhinoceros had no time to talk about all sorts of trivia.
')
Evgeny Chemerevsky " Variations on the theme of a turtle "

It always happens when you are interested in something. The more you learn, the more opportunities appear to learn something new. Then the endless stream of this newcomer overwhelms you, and you start to sink. But until this happens, life is beautiful.

I want to talk about what almost everyone is familiar with. About what few people are interested in. About what no one practically knows anything about. I want to talk about Checkers . Do not rush to grin. If you think you know everything about Checkers, answer (for yourself) a few simple questions:

• What kinds of Checkers exist?
• What is the difference between checkers and chess?
• What is common between Checkers and Tic-Tac-Toe?

Do these questions seem silly to you? This is normal, I also seemed ... until I became interested in the story of Drafts

I have always been interested in logic games, but the variety of various rules attracted me more than the process of the game. True material base pumped up. Judge for yourself, playing with someone (and even with yourself) in Checkers or Chess is not difficult. Board and sets of pieces are sold in any specialty store. With Shogi or Xiangqi everything is much more complicated. In the stores of these games is not found (at least in our country), and their own limbs, frankly, are more adapted for pressing buttons than for processing wood.

Of course, in our time, for almost any game you can find a computer program. The key words in this phrase are exactly two - to find and almost . That is why I was so happy when I discovered ZoG . Yes, it is not very strong in Chess, but it allows you to program almost any game on your own (which many people were not slow to use ). Having stumbled upon this desktop Klondike gamer, I involuntarily became more interested in logical games (including the history of their development).

Whether long, shortly, but after a long reel on Wikipedia and thematic forums, I came across a wonderful blog by Dmitry Skiryuk . It's funny that I went to this blog in search of a coherent description of a certain medieval game called Ritmomachia . Here is what Dmitry himself wrote about this:

... Ritmomachia, I admit, interested me. I began to dig in this direction, and frankly, I did not really succeed, but I stumbled upon the trail that led me to Chase ...

Well, as I have already said, if you are looking for something, then very often you find something quite different from what you were looking for. But I got to know Chase. I have to say right away, the placement of the description of this game in the subject “History of checkers” puzzled me. For a start, I realized that I know practically nothing about Checkers. This, however, is not surprising. Like most of my compatriots, I probably also know about Drafts since childhood, but at the same time, I have never considered this game as something serious (such as, for example, Chess).

I repent, I was wrong ... Dmitry's thematic blog provided enough material for reflection on this. And then I noticed that for almost all the games mentioned by Dmitry there are ZoG implementations. Thus was born the idea of ​​creating a review dedicated to the history of Checkers. Of course, my review is secondary. I largely rely on the extensive material collected by Dmitry Skiryuk and ask to consider my post only as an illustration of the gigantic work he has done.

So, let's begin…

I think that from among those reading this post, it will be difficult to find a person who has never played Tic-Tac-Toe. Of course, you say, but what does this have to do with Checkers? Let's not rush. So, "Tic-Tac-Toe". Simple rules, available "inventory" ... This wonderful game has only one drawback - with the right side play, it always (and very quickly) ends in a draw. This is very boring, because there is no intrigue at all. As a result, such a game (for hours) is capable of playing that junior schoolchildren.

Of course, there have been repeated attempts to make this game more interesting. Personally, I know two fundamentally different approaches to the complexity of this game (in fact, more, but more on that later). First, you can increase the size or dimension of the board. Thus, you can play on 3D, 4D or hexagonal board, or on a large board. Of course, on the big board it makes no sense to play by the rules of "three in a row." To make the game interesting, you need to build a row of five chips. Adding to this a few rules to correct the game balance, we get Renju :



Unlike its progenitor, Renju is quite an “adult” game. There is educational literature on it, international championships are held. But increasing the size of the board is not the only way to complicate the game. Instead of increasing the size of the board, you can allow chips to move. At the beginning of the game, players can put them on the board in the same way as in Tic-Tac-Toe, but having exhausted the allocated limit of chips (and having obtained a regular draw position on the board), players can begin to move the chips on the board, in order to build a line “3 in a row ". Probably originally, the game was played on a 3x3 field. It is in this form that the game called “Dance of 3 Men” is described in the book by Martin Gardner “Mathematical puzzles and entertainment”.

This is a more interesting game than Tic-Tac-Toe, but it can be made even more interesting. First, you can increase and complicate the playing field, give players more than 3 chips and, most importantly, change the condition of victory. Putting a line of 3 chips, the player does not win, but has the right to remove any opponent's chip from the field. The goal of the game is to remove all opponent's chips from the board. This is exactly what the game “Dance of 9 Men”, also known as “The Mill ”, looks like. Options for playing fields for "Mills" are very diverse . Here is how the party of the game " Mill " on one of these boards looks like:



Like any other story, the story of Drafts could not do without the Egyptians. It was in Egypt that a game called Seega was invented. Although this game is not very popular, it has survived to this day. Thus, this is apparently the most ancient version of the “clamping blocks”, the rules of which are known to us. The Greeks and the Romans also contributed to the development of the drafts game by inventing the games " Petteia " and " Latrunculi ", respectively. Without a doubt, these games existed, but, unfortunately, almost nothing is known about their rules. Some researchers believe that Sija originated from Pettaya, but there is no firm certainty about this either.

All of these games were a metaphor for the fighting characteristic of that time. Each player had a set of figures of the same type (his own color) and could move them around the board, in accordance with the rules. The enemy figure was removed from the board (at least in Sija) after “pinching” from two sides (vertically or horizontally) with its figures (two soldiers won in the battle of one). In Sija, the game began with putting pieces on the board (as in The Mill). Only by exposing all of their pieces could players start moving them one square vertically or horizontally. Here's what it looked like:



Another game of the "clamping" type, which has come down to our days, is the Japanese Hasami Shogi . This game, by right, can be called "Japanese checkers". Enemy pieces are also removed from the board by also “clamping” them from two sides (which is reflected in the name of the game Hasami - “pincers”), but you can “clamp” not one but several pieces at once (there are also complex rules "Figures in the corner of the board, which you can see in the next video ). Figures can go not on one, but on several cells at once (like Rooks in Chess). Interestingly, the goal of the game is not to remove all enemy pieces from the board. In various ways, to win, it is required either to remove 5 enemy pieces from the board, or (hello from "Noughts and Crosses") to put 5 of your pieces in a row. It must be said that all these rules make the game a benefit, making it much more dynamic, as compared to, for example, Seega:



For the same "clamping" principles built Tibetan game Gundru , also known as " Min Mang ." Just like in Hasami Shogi, you can “clamp” several figures at once, but the captured figures are not removed from the board, but change color (the chips just roll over):



At the end of the video you can see how the player can reduce the game to a draw. Unfortunately, this tactic is possible for all games of the "clamping" type, the purpose of which is to capture all the enemy pieces. However, this does not make the game less interesting. Connoisseurs of board games have undoubtedly already paid attention to the similarity of the principles of this game with another game:



Unlike the games mentioned earlier, " Reversi " is a relatively young game, with a complex fate. It was invented in Great Britain at the end of the 19th century, but was later forgotten, due to the social cataclysms of the beginning of the 20th century. In 1971, she was revived in Japan under the name Othello.

But back to our story. Following the Greeks and Romans, the Vikings contributed to the development of board games. Making their raids, they spread throughout the world "Bones", "Mill", Shatrandzh ...
But there was another game. In 1880, in one of the grave mounds a fragment of the board was found, marked up from two sides. One side was intended for the game "Mill", the other - for an unknown game on the field of 13x13 cells. Some more boards were found for this game, but the rules remained unknown. Probably, they would have remained so until now, if not for the diaries of Carl Linna . In 1732, in Lapland, he discovered the game, which he was subsequently able to associate with the findings.

Although it was not possible to exactly recreate the rules of all games of the Tafl family, it is undoubted that they belonged to games of a “clamping” type. Unlike the games mentioned here, Tafl is not a symmetrical game. The goal of one of the players of the “Defender” is to bring the King’s piece out of “environment”. The other player must block him by “holding” his pieces from two or more sides (here there are discrepancies in the rule reconstructions). The capture of “ordinary” figures is carried out by “clamping” their opponent’s figures from two sides, but such a destruction of the figures is not the goal of the game for any of the players. Those interested in the history and rules of Tafl, I refer again to the blog of Dmitry Skiryuk, adding, from myself, an example of a game from one of these games:



The games described above refer to games of a “clamping” type. But when the capture of the figure began to be carried out by jumping through the opponent's figure? There is another game that was very popular in the Middle Ages. On a field resembling a mill board, 13 or more “geese” (depending on the game version) should block (prevent the progress) one “fox”. There are more “geese”, but their moves are limited (they can go one step only vertically or horizontally). "Fox", in addition, can walk along the diagonals and, in addition, can "eat" geese, following drafts rules, jumping over the opponent's figure. Even take chains are allowed! It really is very similar to modern Checkers!

Although the game "Fox and Geese" is very interesting, in historical terms, in my opinion, it is somewhat nudged. The process of locking the "fox" can take a very long time. I prefer another game on a very similar board. Nine fields on it, in a special way highlighted and represent a "fortress". There are 2 guards in the fortress, the purpose of which is to prevent the attackers from occupying all the fields of the "fortress". Guards can eat attackers in the same way as the fox in Fox and Geese. Forwards can move in any direction, towards the “fortress”. Here is how it all looks:



The next important milestone in the development of Checkers was the Spanish "Alquerque". This game was played on the field for the game “Al Kirkat”, borrowed from the Arabs and was (most likely) the “Mills” variant. Allowed to move along marked lines. It is not obvious at first glance, but the fields of such a board are not the same. Some have eight neighbors, and some have only four. This feature makes the game very peculiar, in tactical terms. From the arrangement of figures, it is obvious that the player who makes the second move has an advantage. The problem with this imbalance is usually solved by conducting a series of games, with a fairly complex scoring system. Unfortunately, we don’t know the details of the rules of this game (whether taking was mandatory, whether it was allowed to walk back, or whether figures were transformed), but there are a lot of its reconstructions.



Although Alkurk is not without flaws, in the game plan, it is an important transitional form in the history of Checkers. Since this game was spread by the Spaniards around the world, many of its modifications appeared . The most obvious solution to the problem of imbalance of the original game was to increase the size of the playing field. So Harbaga appeared and Zamm, who is even larger (there are already “long-range” ladies in this game):



Simply increasing the size is not the only way to change the board. By analogy with the "Mill" was invented an incredible amount of a variety of non-square game boards according to the rules of Alquerque. Such games are found in India, America, Africa and Asia and are conventionally combined with the term "war" games :



Another approach was the complication of the rules of the game. For example, in Dablo, the preservation of which we also owe to the Laplanders, the figures of “Prince” and “King” were added. These figures, in contrast to the "soldiers" who walked only forward, could walk in any direction and "eat" at will. In addition, these figures were “immune” for ordinary “soldiers”. "King" could take only the enemy "king", "prince" - "king" or "prince". I do not think that this decision was a very good idea, but the game was quite interesting:



Under conditions of territorial isolation, more bizarre Alquerque-based gaming systems emerged. The national pride of the people of Madagascar, for example, is Fanorón , which differs in a very original way of taking figures. There are two ways to capture - attack and retreat. When attacking, the player moves one of his stones to a certain point so that the next point on the same line is occupied by the opponent's stone, while the opponent's stone and all the stones of the same color behind it are removed from the board. When taking a retreat, the player moves one of his stones from a certain point so that the previous point on the same line is occupied by an opponent's stone, while a continuous chain of opponent's stones is also removed from the board. It’s probably easier to show it:



No less interesting is the game of the inhabitants of Java. The edges of the Surakarta board are closed with additional double loops at each corner of the board. For normal moves (one step vertically, horizontally, or diagonals), these loops are not used, but when taking a capture, the figure must pass through one or more loops and occupy the field previously occupied by the opponent. The captures are carried out as in Chess, without jumping through the figure (with the obligatory passage through the loop). There is no chaining:



A little less original (but no less interesting) is African Yotai. This game, like Seega, starts on an empty 5x6 square box. Each player has 12 chips. Players alternately put chips on the board or make a move with a previously placed chip (not necessarily after putting all the chips). You can walk only on verticals and horizontals on one field. The captures are carried out according to the rules of Alquerque, by jumping over the opponent's chip (the chain of takeings is allowed), but, during each take, the player has the right to remove one (any) additional opponent's chip from the board. Such “positive feedback”, combined with the speedy manner of the game, makes the Yotai games completely unpredictable:



Well, we got to modern history. A revolution in the world of checkers struck when they began to play on the chessboard. Since the games of the Chess family were (and remain) at the peak of popularity, the use of their equipment for the game affected the distribution of Checkers more than beneficially. It is worth noting that the situation with Hasami Shogi (about which I spoke earlier) reflects the same picture, but, as it were, on a reduced scale. This game uses the standard Shogi kit, which is extremely common in Japan. Hasami Shogi itself is considered a far less serious game (mostly children play it). If Hasami Shogi hadn’t used a board and a set of Shogi figures, hardly anyone would have known about it.

The most ancient drafts systems are games with orthogonal shapes. These include Turkish , Armenian and Ossetian checkers. As is probably clear, ordinary pieces can only go one square forward, left or right (the exception is Armenian checkers, in which diagonal moves are allowed). The battle of figures is made only orthogonally, by “jumping over” the opponent's figure, to the empty cage following it. Taking is required. When reaching the last line, there is a transformation into a reinforced version of the figure - "lady". Lady long-range. The goal of the game is to deprive the opponent of the possibility of a move (“eat” or “lock” all his pieces). This is how the Turkish checkers game looks like:



Another, more familiar to us, family of games followed the path of consciously abandoning the use of half of the chess fields, allowing the pieces to move only along the diagonals. This decision may seem strange, but perhaps we owe it to him to the famous marking of the chessboard. There are quite a few modern varieties of checkers game, which are sometimes slightly different by the rules. Perhaps the main stumbling block is the question of the length of the ladies. In the English Checkers , the ladies are slow. They differ from ordinary drafts only in the possibility of a move and "felling" back. The more familiar Russian version is much more dynamic, due to the use of “long-range” ladies:



Perhaps the most original is the Italian version. In it, as in the Dablot, about which I spoke earlier, the idea is put into life, that some checkers are more equal than others . Ordinary checkers can not eat ladies, although, unlike Dablot, they can be turned into them, for special merits (reaching the fields of transformation). The ancestor of this version of the game, of course, is the Italian Damone (the goal of the game is to capture all the pieces or the main lady of the opponent):



Of course, the story of Checkers does not end there. Considering the fact that, unlike Chess, Checkers are already fully calculated on computers, for further existence, they simply must develop. There are many options for complicating the game. The most obvious of these, as many times before, is the increase in board size. Remember, at the beginning of this article, I said that I know more than two ways to complicate the game in "Tic-tac-toe"? In fact, there are many such ways. There are, for example, " vertical " tic-tac-toe. And you can change the very goal of the game. What if you count the loser of the player who is forced to build the line "3 in a row"?

The same approach applies to Checkers. This may seem strange, but such " reverse " games turn out to be much more complicated than their "direct" counterparts (especially if there is a compulsory taking rule). In any case, as far as I know, so far, it has not been possible to develop a computer program that adequately plays "Giveaway." Unfortunately, this game is undeservedly overlooked by the world community. Perhaps the matter is in a derogatory name, the very idea of ​​“fostering” all your pieces is possible does not seem decent, I do not know. In any case, I believe that Giveaways is one of the games of the future. Another possible option to “improve” Checkers may be the Pillars .

Special mention should be made of various versions of Shashmat , of which the Altai Shatra can serve as a vivid historical example. In it, the line between Checkers and Chess becomes very thin and almost invisible. Although there is no firm certainty that in ancient times in Altai they played this way, the reconstruction turned out to be very interesting and, undoubtedly, very original:



There are even more original game systems, such as, for example, Abalone, developed by Michel Lale and Laurent Levy in 1987. In it, players are allowed to move simultaneously several figures (up to three) located on adjacent fields, per turn. The goal of the game is to “push out” a given number of enemy pieces outside the board. At the same time, for a successful pushing out, the group of figures making a move must be larger than the group of figures of the other side. Two figures can "push" one, and three, in turn, two or one opponent. As a result, the game is very similar to the Sumo championship held among caterpillars:



Whatever it was, the development of Drafts continues, and this is good news!