History of drafts (in illustrations)

    image         - Evolution? - Revived the Chief. - Something new?

             - French fiction. I tried to figure this out. If, for example, you take an earthworm and instead slip an African rhino right away, then everyone will see that they have been fooled. But if the same focus is stretched for a long time, then no one will notice.

            This is the whole thing: those who saw the worm - all became extinct for a long time, and whoever saw the rhinoceros had no time to talk about all sorts of trifles.

            Evgeny Chemerevsky " Variations on the theme of the turtle "


    It always happens when you are interested in something. The more you learn, the more opportunities there are to learn something new. Then an endless stream of this very newcomer swallows you with your head, and you begin to sink. But until this happens, life is beautiful.

    I want to talk about what almost everyone is familiar with. About what few people are interested in. About that about which practically nobody knows anything. I want to talk about Checkers . Do not rush to grin. If you think you know everything about Checkers, answer (for yourself) a few simple questions:

    • What varieties of Checkers exist?
    • What is the difference between Checkers and Chess?
    • What do Drafts and Tic Tac Toe have in common?

    Do these questions seem silly to you? This is normal, it seemed to me too ... until I became interested in the history of Checkers

    I was always interested in logical games, but the variety of all kinds of rules attracted me more than the game process itself. True material base let us down. Judge for yourself, playing with someone (and even with yourself) in Checkers or in Chess is not difficult. Board and sets of pieces are sold in any specialized store. With Shogi or Xiang, everything is much more complicated. You can’t find these games in stores (at least in our outback), and your own limbs, frankly, are more suitable for pressing buttons than for processing wood.

    Of course, in our time, for almost any game, you can find a computer program. There are exactly two keywords in this phrase -find and almost . That is why I was so happy when I discovered ZoG . Yes, it is not very strong in Chess, but it allows you to program almost any game on your own (which many were not slow to use ). Having stumbled upon this klondike of a board game building, I involuntarily became interested in logic games (including the history of their development) more seriously.

    For how long, briefly, but after a long reel on Wikipedia and thematic forums, I came across a wonderful blog by Dmitry Skiryuk . It's funny that I went to this blog in search of a clear description of a certain medieval game called Rhythm Machia . Here's what about this,Dmitry himself wrote :

    ... Rhythmachy, I confess, interested me. I started digging in this direction, and frankly, I didn’t really succeed, but I came across a track that led me to Chase ...

    Well, as I said, if you are looking for something, then very often you will find something quite different from what you were looking for. But then I met Chase. I have to say right away, the placement of the description of this game in the subject “History of Drafts” puzzled me. To begin with, I realized that I know almost nothing about Checkers. This, however, is not surprising. As probably most of my compatriots I have known about Checkers since childhood, but at the same time, I never considered this game as something serious (such as, for example, Chess).

    I repent, I was wrong ... Thematic blogDmitry provided enough material to reflect on this. And then I noticed that for almost all the games mentioned by Dmitry there are ZoG implementations. Thus was born the idea of ​​creating a review devoted to the history of Checkers. Of course, my review is secondary. I rely heavily on the extensive material collected by Dmitry Skiryuk and ask that my post be considered only as an illustration of the gigantic work he has done.

    So, let's begin ...

    I think that, from among those reading this post, it will be difficult to find a person who has never played the Tic Tac Toe. Of course, you say, but what does this have to do with Checkers? Let's not rush. So, "Tic Tac Toe." Simple rules, affordable "inventory" ... This wonderful game has only one drawback - with the correct game of the parties, it always(and very fast) ends in a draw. This is very boring, because any intrigue is completely absent. As a result, such a game (for hours) can be played only by younger students.

    Of course, repeated attempts have been made to make this game more interesting. Personally, I know two fundamentally different approaches to complicating this game (in fact, more, but more on that later). Firstly, you can increase the size or dimension of the board. Thus, you can play on 3D, 4D or hexagonal board, or on a large boardsize. Of course, on the big board there is no point in playing according to the “three in a row” rules. For the game to be interesting, you need to build a series of five chips. Adding a few rules to this, to fix the game balance, we get Renju :



    Unlike his ancestor, Renju is a completely "adult" game. There is educational literature on it, international championships are held. But increasing the size of the board is not the only way to complicate the game. Instead of increasing the size of the board, you can allow the chips to move. At the beginning of the game, players can place them on the board as in “Tic-tac-toe”, but after having exhausted the selected limit of chips (and having obtained a regular draw on the board), players can begin to move the chips on the board in order to draw a “3 in a row” line ". Probably, initially, the game was played on a 3x3 field. It is in this form that the game called “Dance of 3 Men” is described in Martin Gardner 's book “Mathematical Puzzles and Entertainment”.

    This is a more interesting game than Tic Tac Toe, but it can be made even more interesting. Firstly, you can increase and complicate the playing field, give players more than 3 chips and, most importantly, change the victory condition. By placing a line of 3 chips, the player does not win, but has the right to remove any opponent chip from the field . The goal of the game is to remove all enemy chips from the board. This is what the game "Dance of 9 Men" looks like, also known as the " Mill ". Options for playing fields for the "Mill" are very diverse . Here's what the game of the Mill game looks like on one of these boards:



    Like any other story, the story of the Checkers could not do without the Egyptians. It was in Egypt that a game called Seega was invented . Although this game is not very popular, it has survived to the present day. Thus, this is, apparently, the most ancient version of the "clamping checkers", the rules of which are known to us. The Greeks and Romans also contributed to the development of the checker game by inventing the games “ Petteia ” and “ Latrunculi ”, respectively. Without a doubt, these games existed, but, unfortunately, almost nothing is known about their rules. Some researchers believe that the "Cija" came from the "Pettei", but there is no firm certainty about this.

    All these games were a metaphor for the fighting typical of that time. Each player had a set of pieces of the same type (of their own color) and could move them around the board, in accordance with the rules. The enemy’s figure was removed from the board (at least in the Sidge) after being “pinched” on both sides (vertically or horizontally) by their own figures (two soldiers defeated in battle alone). In Cider, the game began by putting pieces on the board (as in Mill). Only by exposing all their pieces could the players begin to move them one cell vertically or horizontally. Here's how it looked:



    Another game of the "clamping" type that has survived to this day is the Japanese Hasami Shogi . This game, by right, can be called "Japanese checkers." Removing the opponent’s pieces from the board is also carried out by “clamping” them on two sides (as reflected in the name of the Hasami game - “ticks”), but you can “clamp” not one but several pieces at once (there are also complex rules for “clamping” »Figures in the corner of the board, which you can see in the next video) Pieces can go not on one, but on several cells at once (like Rooks in Chess). Interestingly, the goal of the game is not to remove all opponent pieces from the board. In various versions, to win, you must either remove 5 pieces of the opponent from the board, or (greetings from Tic Tac Toe) put 5 of your pieces in a row. I must say that all these rules benefit the game, making it much more dynamic, compared, for example, with Seega:



    According to the same "tightening" principles, the Tibetan game Gundru , also known as " Min Mang ", was built. As in Hasami Shogi, you can “pinch” several pieces at once, but the captured pieces are not removed from the board, but change color (the chips simply flip):



    At the end of the video, you can see how the player can reduce the game to a draw. Unfortunately, such a tactic is possible for all games of the "clamping" type, the purpose of which is to capture all enemy figures. However, this does not make the game less interesting. Board game connoisseurs have undoubtedly already paid attention to the similarity of the principles of this game with another game:



    Unlike the games mentioned earlier, Reversi is a relatively young game with a difficult fate. It was invented in Great Britain at the end of the 19th century, but subsequently forgotten in connection with social disasters of the beginning of the 20th century. In 1971, it was revived in Japan under the name Othello.

    But back to our story. Following the Greeks and Romans, the Vikings made their contribution to the development of board games. Making their raids, they distributed "Bones", "Mill", Shatrange ...
    But there was another game. In 1880, in one of the burial mounds, a fragment of a board was found marked on both sides. One side was intended for playing the Mill, the other for an unknown game on a 13x13 square field. A few more boards were found for this game, but the rules remained unknown. Probably, they would remain so until now, if not for the diaries of Karl Linnaeus . In 1732, in Lapland, he discovered a game, which, subsequently, was able to connect with the findings.

    Although exactly recreate the rules of all games of the Tufle familyand failed, no doubt, that they belonged to the games of the "clamping" type. Unlike the games mentioned here earlier, Tufle is not a symmetrical game. The goal of one of the Defending players is to bring the King's figure out of the environment. Another player - must block him by “holding” his pieces from two or more sides (here in the reconstructions of the rules there are different interpretations). The capture of "ordinary" figures is carried out by "clamping" with their enemy figures from two sides, but such destruction of figures is not the goal of the game for any of the players. Those interested in the history and rules of Tufle, I again refer to Dmitry Skiryuk’s blog, adding, from myself, an example of a game from one of these games:



    The games described above refer to games of the “clamping” type. But when did the capture of the piece begin by jumping over the opponent’s piece? There is another game that was very popular in the Middle Ages. On a field resembling a board for playing in the Mill, 13 or more “geese” (depending on the version of the game) must block (deprive them of the opportunity to move) one “fox”. There are more “geese”, but their possibilities are limited (they can walk one step only vertically or horizontally). The "Fox", in addition, can walk along the diagonals and, in addition, can "eat" geese, according to checker rules, jumping over the enemy’s figure. Even chains of captures are allowed! It really is very similar to modern Checkers!

    Although the game “Fox and Geese” is very interesting, in historical terms, in my opinion, it is somewhat tedious. The process of locking the "fox" can take a very long time. I like another game, on a very similar board. Nine fields on it are specially allocated and represent a “fortress”. There are 2 guards in the fortress whose purpose is to prevent the attackers from occupying all the fields of the “fortress”. Guards can eat forwards like a fox in the Fox and Geese game. Forwards can move in any direction, in the direction of the "fortress". Here's how it all looks:



    The next important milestone in the development of Checkers was the Spanish “Alcuerc”. This game was played on the field for the game "Al Kirkat", borrowed from the Arabs and representing (most likely) a version of the "Mill". Driving is permitted on marked lines. This is not obvious at first glance, but the margins of such a board are not the same. Some have eight neighbors, and some only four. This feature makes the game very peculiar, in tactical terms. From the arrangement of the figures, it is obvious that the player making the second move has an advantage. The problem associated with this imbalance is usually solved by a series of games, with a rather complicated scoring system.. Unfortunately, we are not aware of the details of the rules of this game (whether it was mandatory to take, whether it was allowed to go back, whether the figures were transformed), but there are many of its reconstructions.



    Although Alcuirk is not without flaws, in the game plan, it is an important transitional form in the history of the Checkers. Since this game was spread by the Spaniards around the world, many of its modifications appeared . The most obvious solution to the problem of the imbalance of the original game was to increase the size of the playing field. This is how Harbagh and the even larger Zamma appeared (“long-range” ladies are already present in this game):



    A simple increase in size is not the only option for changing the board. By analogy with the “Mill” an incredible number of various non-square boards were invented for the game according to the rules of Alquerk. Such games were found in India, America, Africa and Asia and are conditionally combined by the term “war” games :



    Another approach was to complicate the rules of the game. For example, in Dablo, the preservation of which we also owe to the Laplanders, the figures of "Prince" and "King" were added. These figures, unlike the "soldiers" who walked only forward, could walk in any direction and "eat" at will. In addition, these figures were “immune” for ordinary “soldiers”. Only the enemy “king” could take the “King”, the “prince” could be taken by the “king” or “prince”. I do not think that this decision was a very good idea, but the game turned out to be quite interesting:



    In conditions of territorial isolation, more bizarre gaming systems based on Alcuerc arose. The national pride of the inhabitants of Madagascar, for example, is Fanorona , which is distinguished by a very original way of taking figures. There are two methods of capture - attack and retreat. When taken by an attack, the player moves one of his stones to a certain point so that the next point on the same line is occupied by the opponent’s stone, while the opponent’s stone and all stones of the same color behind it are removed from the board. When taking a retreat, the player moves one of his stones from a certain point so that the previous point on the same line is occupied by the opponent’s stone, while a continuous chain of opponent’s stones is also removed from the board. It might be easier to show this:



    No less interesting is the game of the inhabitants of the island of Java. The edges of the Surakarta board are closed with additional double loops on each of the board corners. For ordinary moves (one step vertically, horizontally or diagonally) these loops are not used, but when taking, the piece must go through one or more loops and occupy the field previously occupied by the opponent’s piece. Captures are carried out as in Chess, without jumping over a piece (with a mandatory loop loop). No Take Chains:



    A little less original (but no less interesting) is the African Yotai. This game, like Seega, starts on an empty field measuring 5x6 cells. Each player has 12 chips. Players alternately place chips on the board or make a move with the previously placed chip (not necessarily after all the chips have been placed). You can only walk vertically and horizontally on one field. Takes are carried out according to the rules of Alkuerk, by jumping over the opponent’s chip (tapping chains are allowed), but, during each capture, the player has the right to remove one (any) additional opponent’s chip from the board. This “positive feedback”, combined with the high-speed style of play, makes Yotai games completely unpredictable:



    Well, we got to the latest history. The revolution in the world of drafts broke out when they began to be played on a chessboard. Since the games of the Chess family were (and remain) at the peak of popularity, the use of their inventory for the game affected the distribution of Checkers more than beneficially. It is worth noting that the situation with Hasami Shogi (which I spoke about earlier) reflects the same picture, but, as it were, on a reduced scale. This game uses the standard Shogi kit, which is extremely common in Japan. Hasami Shogi itself is considered a much less serious game (mostly children play it). If Hasami Shogi hadn’t used a board and a set of Shogi pieces, hardly anyone would have known about it.

    The most ancient checker systems are games with the orthogonal course of the figures. These include Turkish, Armenian and Ossetian drafts. As already probably clear, ordinary pieces can go one square only forward, left or right (the exception is Armenian checkers, in which diagonal moves are allowed). The battle of figures is carried out only orthogonally, by "jumping" through the enemy’s figure, onto the empty cell following it. A take is required. Upon reaching the last line, there is a transformation into a reinforced version of the figure - the "lady". Long-range lady. The goal of the game is to deprive the opponent of the opportunity to move (“eat” or “lock” all his pieces). Here is the game in Turkish drafts:



    Another family of games that is more familiar to us has taken the path of consciously abandoning the use of half of the chess fields, allowing the pieces to move only along the diagonals. This decision may seem strange, but perhaps we owe it to him for the famous layout of the chessboard. There are a lot of modern varieties of a checker game, sometimes slightly different in rules. Perhaps the main stumbling block is the question of the range of the ladies. In English Checkers , slow-moving ladies. They differ from ordinary checkers only in the ability to move and “cut” back. The Russian version that is more familiar to us is much more dynamic, due to the use of "long-range" dams:



    Perhaps the most original is the Italian version. In it, as in Dablot, which I spoke about earlier, the idea is put into effect that some pieces are more equal than others . Ordinary checkers cannot eat ladies, however, unlike Dablot, they can be turned into them, for special merits (having reached the fields of transformation). The ancestor of this version of the game, of course, is the Italian Damone (the goal of the game is to capture all the chips or the opponent’s main lady):



    Of course, the story of the Checkers does not end there. Considering that, unlike Chess, Checkers are already fully calculated on computers, for further existence, they are simply obliged to develop. There are many options for complicating the game. The most obvious of them, like many times before, is an increase in the size of the board. Remember, at the beginning of this article, I said that I know more than two ways to complicate the game in Tic Tac Toe? In fact, there are many such methods. There are, for example, " vertical " tic-tac-toe. And you can change the very goal of the game. What if we consider a loser a player forced to build a “3 in a row” line?

    A similar approach applies to Checkers. It may seem odd, but the like "обратные" игры, оказываются гораздо сложнее их «прямых» аналогов (особенно при наличии правила обязательного взятия фигур). Во всяком случае, насколько мне известно, до сих пор, не удалось разработать компьютерную программу, адекватно играющую в «Поддавки». К сожалению, эта игра незаслуженно обойдена вниманием мирового сообщества. Возможно дело в уничижительном названии, возможна сама идея «поддать» все свои фигуры не кажется достойной, я не знаю. В любом случае, я считаю, что Поддавки — одна из игр будущего. Другим возможным вариантом «улучшения» Шашек могут оказаться Столбовые шашки.

    Отдельного упоминания заслуживают различные варианты Шашмат, наглядным историческим примером которых может служить алтайскаяThe tent . In it, the line between Checkers and Chess becomes completely thin and almost invisible. Although there is no firm belief that in ancient times they played in this way in Altai, the reconstruction turned out to be very interesting and, of course, very original:



    There are even more original gaming systems, such as, for example, Abalone, developed by Michel Lale and Laurent Levy in 1987. In it, players are allowed to move simultaneously several figures (up to three) located in neighboring fields, per turn. The goal of the game is to “push” a predetermined number of enemy pieces out of the board. Moreover, for successful pushing, the group of pieces making a move should be larger than the group of figures on the other side. Two figures can “push” one, and three, in turn, two or one enemy figure. As a result, the game is very similar to the Sumo Championship held among the caterpillars:



    Be that as it may, the development of the Checkers continues, and this cannot but rejoice!

    Applications

    N in a row



    Mill



    Cija



    Petteia



    Latrunculi



    Khnefatafl



    Fox and geese



    Asalto



    Agon



    Halatafle



    Min Mang



    Reverse



    Alcuerc



    "War" games



    Харбага



    Замма



    Чоко



    Дабло



    Фанорона



    Йотай


    • Peter Aronson "Yote"

    Суракарта


    • Chris Lusby Taylor, Steve Evans, Steve Evans "Surakarta"

    Шашки



    Дамоне



    Хальма



    Столбовые шашки


    • Peter Michaelsen, Victor M. Pakhomov, Karl Scherer "Bashne"
    • Emanuel Lasker, Karl Scherer "Laska"
    • Christian Freeling, Ed van Zon, Christian Freeling "Emergo"
    • Christian Freeling, Ed van Zon, Christian Freeling "HexEmergo"
    • Ed van Zon, Christian Freeling "HExplocus"

    Шашматы



    Абалоне




    Источники


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