draughts
White, with the move, has but one square, 28, into which he can move. Black, with the move, would of course win by going into the same square, and soon compel an exchange. Suppose White move—
If he play 27 to 23 his adversary takesfrom 18 to 27, and leaves himself after the exchanges with two kings to one. White prolongs the struggle by moving from 27 to 31, to which Black replies by playing
which leaves Black with two kings to one, when he wins in ten or twelve moves.
This last is an instructive position, as it shows how the greater force must conquer. Generally the same result happens in other and more vastly important contests. The game of Draughts, like the game of war, can only be successfully played by an intimate union of strategy and might.
If each player had equal skill, and each made the proper move, then the player who took the first move would win. This sentence sounds like a truism, but it is open to argument. Throughout every game it is important to know which of the two players ‘has the move’—that is, the power to fix his adversary man for man on every available square. The first moves of a game do not directly affect its final result, but when the men have become fewer and fewer, it is of the greatest consequence to know on which side lies the forcing power. To make this plain, place a white man on square 4, the top right-hand corner, and a black man on square 30, the second from the left in the lowermost row of squares. Black, having to play, moves from 30 to 26, and do what he may, White must be stopped at square 19. Try it. White, having to play first, cannot, on the contrary, prevent his opponent from making a king. This simply shows the theory of Having the Move.
To discover whether you Have the Move, several plans are at your service. The easiest is this: Count one for each man of both colours which stand on columns having a white square at the foot. If it is your turn, and the total of the addition be odd, you Have the Move; if it is your opponent’s turn to play, the move is with him.
Place the men as in the followingdiagram, and you will soon find that either colour moving first has the move, and therefore ought to win.
draughtsThe Move.—Either colour to play first and Have the Move.
The Move.—Either colour to play first and Have the Move.
Another Plan, by some considered more certain, is this:—
If you desire to know if any one of your men has the move of any man on the other side, examine the position of both. If there is a black square on the right angle under his man you Have the Move. For instance, you have a black man on 30, and white has a man on 3. The right angle is the black square between 31 and 32. With your man on square 29 or 31 the right angle would be found on theblack squares on one or other side of the straight line below the white man, and he, therefore, would Have the Move. The value of this plan is that it holds good with any number of men.
A Third Plan.—Count the men and the squares. If the men are even and the squares are odd, or if the squares are even and the men odd,youHave the Move. With even men and even squares, and odd men and odd squares, the move is on the other side.
To apply this theory. When you have the move donotexchange, if you can avoid it, or you may lose the move. For example, place the men thus:
draughtsThe Move.—White to play and win.
The Move.—White to play and win.
When all the men, both Black and White, on the lettered column (a,b,c,d,) are added up, the total isodd, and the side having to play Has the Move. If no men are on the lettered squares, then take the figured squares, 1, 2, 3, 4; but donotcombine the two. Apply the theory to the above position. We find that there being 9, an odd number of men, on the lettered columns, White Has the Move, and having it, would win:
What, now, can Black do but play, and lose a man and the game? He has but two squares, 15 and 11, open to him. His defeat is decisive and complete.
Change man for man till only one capturing piece remains on the board. Suppose Black had men on squares 12 and 15, and White had men on 24 and 28. What should White do? Nothing more simple. He plays from 24 to 19. Black must take the offered piece and be taken, when his remaining man on 12 is fixed by the White on square 19.
A further example. Place the men thus:—
draughtsRegaining the Move.—White to play and win.
Regaining the Move.—White to play and win.
Here it would appear that Black must win. But White, playing first, forces a win.
The beginner who follows the moves of this game with an understanding brain, will learn more about the scientific theory of Draughts than he could acquire by a year of miscellaneous play.
As stated onpage 182, the rules are few and simple. The explanations and remarks are in brackets.
1. The board is to be so placed as that the double corner is at the right hand of the player. [Some play on the white, and some on the black squares. For convenience of numbering the board and recording the moves, the white squares are now generally adopted.]
2. The choice of colour is determined by lot, and the men on either side are placed on the alternate squares in three lines immediately in front of the player. [The black or the white squares, as may be decided before starting.]
3. Black has the first move, and the men are changed with each game. [Thus giving in turn the first move to each player.]
4. The player who touches a man, except for the purpose of adjusting it, must move that man, if it can be legally moved.
5. A piece moved over the angle of a square must be moved to that square. [This is a newly-adopted law, to prevent the undecided mode of moving backward and forward adopted by some players.]
6. A manen prisemust be taken if intimation be given by the player offering it. If by accident it is left untaken, the piece which should have taken it may be huffed. [It is at the option of the adversary to huff or let the offending piece remain.]
7. The player cannot stand the huff, when he is told to take a man, or men.
8. The huff is not a move; and after taking off the huffed piece, the player moves. [Thus ‘huff and move’ is a well-understood direction.]
9. A player taking one piece only when two or more can be legally taken, maybe huffed on the completion of his move.
10. When a piece isen priseit must be taken within a minute. [This is to prevent the delay in which some indulge.]
11. Five minutes is the limit of time for considering a move. The penalty for exceeding the time allowed is loss of the game. [This law applies more particularly to match games.]
12. A piece abandoned is a completed move. [In all games this law should be observed, as nothing is so annoying to an opponent as to be asked to allow a move to be amended.]
13. A false or illegal move must be rectified, or the game resigned; such move may be allowed to remain, at the option of the adversary. [By a false move is meant the moving backward, or sideways, or on to the wrong-colour square.]
14. If a player in the act of taking remove one of his own men from the board, it cannot be replaced, except by consent of the opponent.
15. When three or more kings are opposed to a weaker force, the game must, when the opponent gives notice to count, be won within forty moves, or abandoned as drawn.
16. When two kings are opposed to one, the game is to be declared drawn, unless the player with the stronger force win in twenty moves. [From any part of the board two kings can win against one in fifteen or sixteen moves.]
17. Notice must be given of the intention to count the moves. [Twenty or forty, as the case may be; one for the combined move of both colours.]
18. When several pieces can be taken in one continuous move, no piece may be taken up off the board until the move is completed. The player failing to take all the men may be huffed. [As inRule 9.]
19. When a man arrives at a square in the last row on the opposite side of the board, he must be immediately crowned. But the king cannot move till the opposing player has made his move.
20. Kings can move backward or forward, one square at a time only; and, to take two or more pieces in one move, there must be a vacant square behind each individual piece.
21. Disputes are to be decided by an umpire, or a majority of the company.
22. Matches must consist, unless otherwise agreed, of an equal number of games. [The rules for regulating a match should be determined and stated in writing. An umpire should be appointed.]
23. During the progress of a game neither player is allowed to leave the room, except by permission of his opponent.
24. Pointing over the board, loud talk, or any other behaviour likely to annoy or confuse an adversary, if persisted in, forfeits the game.
25. No bystander is allowed to advise a player, or interfere with the progress of a game.
26. A breach of any of the above laws is punishable by the loss of the game, if in the opinion of the umpire such breach was intentional.
Play with better players than yourself. Observe the openings.
Look well over the board before making a move.
Never touch a man without moving it.
Leave off when your mind is fatigued, and never persist in playing when you stand but small chance of winning.
Waste no time in considering an inevitable move. Take the offered piece without hesitation or delay.
When you are a man ahead, exchangeas often as you can, but at the same time beware of man-traps and spring-guns.
Abandon a line of play the secret of which is discovered by your adversary; and when a piece must be lost, make no attempt to retain it. Sometimes it is safer to give up a man than to defend a weak position.
Make your kings as quickly as you can. Avoid all cramped positions. Back up your men in phalanx fashion:—
draughts
and move rather towards the centre than to the sides of the board. Be careful not to move out your men too soon from the safety of the back row.
Play with your head as well as with your fingers. Avoid banter and loud talk. Boast not of your victories. Win modestly, and lose with good temper. Punctuality is the politeness of kings. Courtesy is the grand characteristic of good draught-players.
There is a good deal of amusement and no little skill in the Losing Game. As its name denotes, this game is the reverse of Draughts proper. The object is to lose all your men; and he who accomplishes that object wins.
The whole or main secret of the Losing Game is to play towards the sides of the board, and to so arrange your men as to be able to give up two, three, or more at a singlecoup. After a little practice you will discover that even with a dozen men on the board against, say, two or three, you may win—that is, you may compel your adversary to take them all. Or with a single king you may take man after man, and then, at last, commit graceful suicide. Or you may compel a king to take several men. Much depends on Having the Move.Here, for instance, is a position in which a king is forced to take eight men and lose the game:—
draughtsBlack to move and White to win, or White to move and Black to win.
Black to move and White to win, or White to move and Black to win.
Black has only two squares into which he can go, and then he must allow White to give away his men one after the other. If White moves first, Black gains the opposition by losing his king, and wins the game.
In the nextdiagram, again, is a position in which White can compel a single Black man to take all his eleven pieces one after the other.
draughtsWhite to play and win.
White to play and win.
White, moving upward, first gives his king, and then the man on 24, after which he offers the man on 31, which White must take and become a king. The remaining moves are simple, but White has to play carefully, or he may enable the Black king to sacrifice himself and win.
The Losing Game offers numerous opportunities for calculation and combination; but what we have shown is sufficient to enable young players to understand the theory. Excellence will come with practice and perseverance.
The Polish game is played on a board of a hundred squares, ten each way; but for all ordinary purposes the regular English board of sixty-four squares will do as well. The board is set in the usual way, with a double corner at the right hand of the players, no matter which colour be chosen.
Two great and essential differences exist between English and Polish Draughts. In the foreign game the mentake backward and forward, one square at a time, as many pieces as areen prise, and the kingsleap over any number of squares, wherever and whenever there is a piece to take. As, in our own game, a piece touched must be moved, and all the other rules of the English game are to be observed. On the Continent, where the game is much more common than with us, the crowned man is called a queen, just as the game itself is Damen, a game for ladies. With them, as with us, the White squares are usually chosen.
It is by exchanges that good players at Polish Draughts parry moves and prepare combinations. It is well to give man for man, or two for two. By that means the game is strengthened, and thus it often happens that a single man can confine several of his opponent’s pieces.
Thelunette—the placing a man on a square between two men of the other side—is much more frequent in the Polish than in the English game. Look well to the position before you enter thelunette; and having entered it, before you decide on your move. It is often a snare, which the good player will try to avoid.
Concentrate your men towards the end of the game, for then the slightest error may be fatal.
Two, three, or more pieces may sometimes be advantageously sacrificed to obtain a king, which, in this game, is very powerful. Make your kings as soon as you can, and play them with judgment. With a king and a man against two or three kings, hesitate not to sacrifice your man, for the game may be almost as well defended by the king alone. Between equal players, the game often results in a draw; but there is no saying how numerous are the combinations which may lead to victory or its reverse.
It is not necessary to give the moves of a game, as, except for its two grand distinctions, Polish Draughts is similar to the English game.
Here, then, we have pretty well all that can be taught on paper respecting this branch of the game. The next step is How to Open a game with advantage. This I shall proceed briefly to show; and after that the excellence is to be acquired by practice alone. Draughts, in all its varieties, is an admirable game, inculcating patience, caution, tact, and scientific calculation. Those who would excel in its practice must be content to go slowly. There is no royal road to Draughts. Perseverance and failure are the parents of success.
Usually it is necessary to begin at the beginning; but in Draughts and Chess, as in other games of skill, players commence playing, and even attain some degree of aptness, before they actually conquer the alphabet, the science, of the several amusements. There is no great harm in this plan, however. Do we not all learn to talk before we know anything of grammar or orthography; to sing before we understand even the notation of music; to argue and discuss before we get even the haziest notion of logic? Of course we do. And then we naturally endeavour to go back to first principles, and so correct our mistakes by aid of rule and system.
I told you some pages back that there were various accepted openings to the game of Draughts—the Old Fourteenth, the Single Corner, the Laird and Lady, the Glasgow, the Whilter, and some fifty others. All the really safe, sound, and favourable openings, however, proceed from the five here named. The rest are well enough to know, but in practice they are risky and fantastical.
To properly understand what follows, it is necessary that you should so completely conquer the notation of draughts as to be able to follow the moves in your mind’s eye without seeing the board. This is not nearly so difficult as you may think. Number your board as in the diagram below, and place the men in the order of play.
draughtsThe Numbered Board, with the men placed in their order of play.
The Numbered Board, with the men placed in their order of play.
Here we have the Black men on the upper half of the board, though whether the White or the Black occupy that position the order of their moves is the same. The usual plan is for the Black to take the first move, and for the players to change the pieces with each game. By this method each player begins alternately, and always with the Black men. Our games will be so arranged, if you please.
Let us commence, then, with the best of the openings—
These three moves on either side constitute the Old Fourteenth Opening. From this point, at which the game is perfectly even, spring many variations. The most common and accepted moves on each side are—
The following is now the position. Both sides are well placed, and the game, if played thoroughly, should end in a draw, with White for preference.
draughts
Black has now the choice of two moves. We will suppose that he defends his position by moving from 9 to 14.
The first double column gives the moves from the position in the diagram; six moves on each side having been made. The other columns show six variations. The star indicates the losing move in each case.
If you play out these games carefully you will see that there is a reason for each move, and thus demonstrate that Draughts is a scientific game possessing no element of luck or chance.
The opening known as the Laird and Lady is a favourite with players north of the Tweed. Rare fine players at Draughtsare the Scotsmen. They carried the game across the Atlantic, where it is popularly known as Checquers, or, as the New Englanders spell it, Checkers.
The first two moves on each side in the Laird and Lady are the same as those in the Old Fourteenth.
Then comes the variation which distinguishes it,
This Black follows on with a move which compels an exchange.
White’s last move supports the advanced man on square 14. Then Black proceeds with what at first sight seems a weak move:—
From this point the game is even, though the advantage would certainly seem to be on the side of the White. The following is the position at the point arrived at:—