GAME OF DRAUGHTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 86, 21 January 1938, Page 3

GAME OF DRAUGHTS.

OLD AS THE PYRAMIDS. In the British Museum there is a carving of a lion playing draughts with an antelope, on a twenty-five-square board with five pieces a side. It dates from the year 1600 8.C., and. was made in Egypt. Draughts is therefore probably the oldest known game in the world. ' Homer, in nis poem the “Odyssey’ (about 1500 B.O.) says that Penelope, while waiting for her husband Ulysses to return, kept many suitors waiting for her answer and tney sat down to play draughts. But he does not describe the rules by which they played. There is also in existence a 1900-year-old Latin handbook of the game, ■written for the Emperor Nero, but it is so full of Latin technical terms that it is impossible to understand it. But it does mention both men and officers among the pieces. This is the first known indication that kings were used, in the early days of draughts. According to the old Sages, the Norsemen played draughts aboard their ships—lo 37 years ago. The earliest known English band- | book on draughts is comparatively modern. It appeared in George ll.’s I time, with a preface by i>r. Johnson, j Since then, at any rate, the rules have not changed. I There was an earlier hook published on draughts in London in 1694, hut it was only a history not a code of rules. | In those days draughts was called “the French game.” But the French have now stopped | playing by our rules. They play what is called Polish 1 draughts with a hundred-square board and 20 pieces 'a side. When taking an opponent’s piece any draughtsman can move forward or back, and the king shoots diagonally - across the board, like a bishop in chess. The same rules apply in Poland, Holland and Belgium. In Italy, a king can only he captured by another king. In Turkey, where draughts has become the national indoor game, every piece moves one square forward or back, left or right. The king travels the length of the board and capturing is compulsory.