DRAUGHTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 September 1938, Page 4

DRAUGHTS

WORLD’S OLDEST GAME. In the British Museum there is a with*’ln ° f , HOn p,ayin 8‘ ‘h-aughts c-m./. > dn;elope on a twenty-five--1 V ?° a !: d With /ivo PH-ces a side. , <latef! from the year 1600 BC and was made in Egypt. Draughts is' therefore probably the oldest known' .-,ame in the world .... . , .

Homer, in his poem the “Odvssev” (about 1500 8.C.), says that PeneJcme t^return 11 ? 8 f°’’ her husba » ( ’ Ulsses to j etui n. kept many .suitors waiting idnv m an^ vver a »ff they sat down to eH e Ug lS ’ . RUt he (lOe « llot cube the rules by which they played. I here is also in existence a nine-teen-hundred-year-old Latin handbook ol the game .writen 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 officer among the pieces fh- rTint 8 the ,irHt known indication that, kings were used in the earlv da vs ol draughts. According to the old Sagos |j le Norsemen played draughts aboard their ships-—1037 years ago. The earliest-known English handbook on Draughts is comparatively modern. It appeared in George Il’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 16!H. 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 has become the national indoor game,' every piece moves one square forward or back, left or right. Tho king travels tho length of the board and capturing is compulsory.