DRAUGHTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 284, 12 September 1938, Page 3

DRAUGHTS.

THE WORLD’S OLDEST GAME. In the British Museum there is a carving of a lion playing draughts with an antelope on a twenty-five-square hoard with five pieces a side. It dates from the year 1600 R.C. and was made in Egypt, Draughts is therefore, probably the oldest known game in the world. Homer, in his poem the “Odyssey ’ (about 1600 8.C.) says that Penelope while waiting for her husband Ulysses to return, kept many suitors waiting for her answer and they sat down to play draughts. But ho does not describe the rules bv which they played. There is also in existence a nincteen-hnndred-voar-old Latin handbook of the game, written for tho Emperor Xero, hut it is so full of Latin technical terms that it is impossible to understand it. But. it does mention both mi'll and officers among the pieces. This is the first known indication Hint 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 handbook on Draughts is comparatively modern. It appeared in Gdorge ll.’s

time, with a preface by Dr. .Johnson. Since then, at any rate, the rules have not changed. There was an earlier book published on Draughts in London in 1694, but 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 Draughts with a hundred-square board and twenty 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 be captured by another king. In Turkey, where Draughts lias 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.