Checkers (board games)

One of the world's oldest known boardgames, it is played by two people who oppose each other across a board of 64 alternating light and dark squares. The 24 disk-shaped playing pieces are of contrasting colors. Play consists of advancing a piece diagonally forward to an adjoining vacant square. A win is scored when an opponent's pieces are all captured or blocked so that they cannot move. Games similar to checkers were played in the days of the early Egyptian pharaohs (by ca. 1600 BCE); they were mentioned in the works of the Greek writers Homer and Plato. In the 12th century CE, an early form of the game was adapted to the 64-square chessboard, and by the 16th century the rule compelling capture had been added, producing a game essentially the same as modern checkers.