TURKISH DRAUGHTS.

This game is different from all the others. It is played on an uncheckered board, and the pieces move forward and sideways either to the right or left, but they cannot move backward nor diagonally. The boards and the management of the men, and the method of marking the board for the sake of working out problems and recording plays, are shown in the diagrams below.

In this game the men have greater liberty of action, as they are permitted to move in three instead of two directions. Also, they have a greater field of actic as there are sixty-four squares on the Turkish board, as against thirty-two on the English and fifty on the Polish boards. The elementary principles, however, are the same as in the games already mentioned, and the game offers as extensive and as scientific developments.

This game, like the ancient varieties of the game, is a mimic battle in which the soldiers advance, extend and close, mass, march in columns, etc. The game is governed by the rules of the English game, except as here described.

White always moves first. The pieces move one square at a time, forward or to the right or the left. The men capture in the direction in which they are moving, by leaping over the adverse men behind which there is an open space. A pawn is made a king under the same conditions as in the English game, which, of course, can move in any direction. A king can jump a complete column in capturing or otherwise. His powers are the same as in the Spanish and Polish games.

In this game, capturing, when it is possible to capture, is compulsory. The men captured are moved from the board as they are captured, thus opening up the ranks of the enemy so that other men can be captured

Previous Contents Next