lidraughts.org

Playing checkers since 7 years old with completely different rules

Well I got to know about this website through Lichess where some people posted about this website in the fourm

I signed up

coz I have played checkers since the age of 7 (In contrast I started playing chess when I was 19)

not regularly but like on sundays or as a rainy day activity

The checkers I played or most of my friends in Pakistan played was on 8x8 board
No compulsory jumps and queen can only move backward one square :/

Is that a draughts/Checkers variant or just made up rules on which we used to play?

@AsadsWorld
It is hard to imagine a checkers variant without compulsory jump, because, practically, it would mean that starting side (= white) will run out of moves and lose. Besides, "huffing" does not solve this problem, because it stops delivering some shots which require multiple moves.
However, you and your Pakistani friends might enjoy Gothic checkers which, in fact, can be pretty simple for players with good chess background.

Gothic checkers is included among variants offered by "Checkersland" , see http://checkersland.com ; as well, it is included in hwiegman.home.xs4all.nl/alfacheckers.html .
Rules: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/94446/gothic-checkers .
Game example : youtu.be/M4A-eKixxmw .

In addition, I have to say that there is a simpler variant of checkers where checkers go and jump orthogonally, and a king is short range piece, but the board size is smaller. It is Palestinian checkers glukkazan.github.io/checkers/palestinian-dama-5x8.htm .

@kalnap Yeah many of our games end when there is no move left for either white or black .. If white can't move black wins and vise versa but it never always happen to someone with white pieces and also we make strategic sacrifices to avoid running out of moves and lose also we never capture orthogonaly

Also Pakistanis don't play chess (in comparison) the checkers with the rules I mentioned is more played..in our local rules only :/ However Chess is more professionally and competitively played here in Pakistan but checkers is just a party game

Gothic checkers look similar to Turkish checkers which I played a lot except in Turkish checkers the placement is different and you cant capture diagonally



@AsadsWorld
There is Pakistan Checkers Draughts Association which has own Facebook page www.facebook.com/groups/1898826493711756 . English checkers and International checkers are promoted in your country. By the way, your country players had good results in English checkers in recent matches against USA and South Africa.

That's the main problem of the game of checkers, too many national variants which in fact limit the spread of the game. Chess is almost everywhere played with the same rules, and that's one of the reasons why chess is considered the king of board games. There are some draughts variants that are very similar to others, this is just confusing and reducing the diffusion of the game.
If there were less variants it would be better.
I am Italian, in my country there's another version of the game, dama italiana, very similar to english draughts, for example.

For example Brazilian checkers, American Pool checkers and Russian draughts are almost identical... wouldn't it be better to have just one variant??

@alessettembre Draughts is a community game, and nowadays draughts players respect unity, despite diversity of rules. It is hard to meet serious draughts player who had not played at least three variants of draughts!
Some national rules are rooted in national values: for example, in Italian draughts pedone (checker; literally "walker") can't capture signora (king, literally "lady")! As some players stated, in English draughts a king makes one-step move because it would be improper for a monarch to move by leaping instead of walking.
In fact, diversity of rules does not break the essence of draughts. It is why many draughts variants survived, while, for example, Shatranj, Chaturaji, Chaturanga, Tamerlane chess experienced decline of popularity. As well, it should be noted that before contemporary chess existed, the elite game was not some medieval chess variant but Philosopher's Game (see article en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rithmomachy and try glukkazan.github.io/elimination/rithmomachia.htm ) which is played by different pieces and which demands constant exercise of mathematical skills. Thus, contemporary chess has gained popularity by successful PR campaigns, but the downside is that contemporary chess overshadowed many national or regional variants. For example, in 19th century there were some chess player communities which allowed also pawn to pawn promotion (and a pawn in that case becomes immobile), and, in my opinion, it is not a bad particularity, because it eliminates stalemate draws in some cases.
As well, the differences in rules can serve as a measurement of mind flexibility, and I believe that playing draughts under different rules makes easier to accept cultural diversity in everyday life.

National rules of playing draughts reflect the mentality of the people.
In the italian way of thinking hierarchy is very important. That's the reason why an already promoted piece (dama) can not be taken by a still unpromoted piece (pedina). In the italian culture and society there are people who have gained more prestige and popularity and those people seem to be less vulnerable, they seem to have more rights. They can dare to do some things that common people would not be allowed to do. So, in italian draughts, if a pedina reaches the ultimate rank and becomes a dama, then "she" is superior to simple pieces. And common pieces can not touch her. That's a sort of submission.
I also like this variety of many forms of playing and I recognize that this turns the game more interesting, but some variants are so similar to each other that they hardly make any sense.
I personally appreciate some variants which are significantly different from all the others like turkish draughts. In turkish checkers you can make some sort of waiting moves, like in chess, moving a piece sideways without advancing, adjusting the position. I like that! I also like italian, english and spanish checkers and I hope that those variants will soon be playable on this beautiful site.

Reconnecting