Alquerque

How to play alquerque

The rules

• Alquerque was played across the Arab world and written down in Spain in 1283, in Alfonso X's Libro de Juegos. It is the forerunner of draughts.
• The board has 25 points joined by lines. Every point has lines across and up and down; the diagonal lines pass through only every other point.
• Each player has twelve pieces, one side white and the other black. You fill the two rows nearest you and the two points of the middle row on your right. Only the centre point is left empty.
• Take turns. On your turn, move one of your pieces one step along a line to a neighbouring empty point, in any direction.
• To capture, your piece needs an enemy piece right next to it on a line, with an empty point straight beyond. Jump over the enemy piece to that point and take it off the board.
• After a jump, the same piece may jump again from where it landed, in any direction, as long as another capture is open. A zigzag chain like this can take several pieces in one move.
• You don't have to capture, but it has a price. If you could have captured and chose not to, your opponent may take that piece off the board.
• You win when you have taken all of your opponent's pieces.

In this version

• White moves first unless you choose otherwise. The Libro de Juegos holds that moving second is an advantage, and that two equally skilled players will draw. To test it, let your opponent begin.
• The penalty falls on a piece that could have captured. Your opponent takes it before making their own move, and may choose not to; if they move without taking it, the chance is gone. Stopping a chain of jumps early is not punished.
• Pieces you jump stay on the board until your move is finished, so you cannot jump the same piece twice or land on its point.
• If you cannot move on your turn, you lose.
• The game is drawn if the same position comes up three times, or after sixty moves without a capture.

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