Chess vs checkers

I don't think so.

 

It is evidently a true statement. How can you disagree (unless you play checkers on an enlarged board, a 10x10 grid in which you still use only 50 squares).

Well if you remove all the white squares the board would be a 8x4 grid and be more complex to play.  So the white squares are crucial.

i don't know checkers

 

This thread is glorious! Who knew there was potential for such thoughtful analysis of something so seemingly trivial. I will henceforth play chess and checkers with great consideration for its social implications! For hours at a time!

The game of Checkers has been solved. Chess on the other hand will likely never be solved because of its complexity, so I will stick with Chess. As for the social implications of either game, get a life! These are just classic games, nothing more!

One quality chess has over checkers is that the pieces can go backwards. Like a bishop can be on the 8th square, then go to the 1st square then back again along with other pieces. Whereas in checkers everything moves forward. This makes checkers a more simplistic game. Although checkers is still complicated, it's not as complicated as chess.

You can move back in checkers, after promotion.

Checkers is like having nothing but pawns to start the game with. I wouldn't be surprised if checkers was created by someone who wanted to simplify chess or stole the idea from pawns. Like chess, the pawns get promoted to kings ( which have the same power of Queens in chess) when they get to the other end of the board.  It's pretty much a simplistic rip-off of chess.

chess and checkers are different games

you know why?

because they ARE different games

no kidding

They're games, with distinct rules. Why does there have to be a comparison to various systems of governing? The knights have a role within the structure of the team and plan, as do the other pieces. Imagine someone complaining that it's unfair that a linebacker is stuck being a linebacker because he'll never ascend to the role of quarterback. It's silly. Just play the game and have fun.

Chess players grossly underestimate the depth of checkers or draughts as some of us call it. It's not an easy or trivial game. A good chess player will not beat a good draughts player at checkers/draughts.

Checkers has its own beauty and aesthetic. Chess is my favourite, but when people speak disparagingly of checkers they don't know what they are talking about.

 

Well said. The arrogant comparison between checkers and chess is no different than the same done when people discuss (disparagingly) of the differences between association football and gridiron football. Two different games with individual inherent beauties, none being better than the other.

GO PATRIOTS!!!

Firstly, there are different kinds of checkers globally with different rules. Russian checkers is not the same as draughts/checkers that we play in the UK/US, the board sizes are different etc. Regarding the UK/US game, I played it a bit as a kid and then became addicted to it briefly in my early 20s. A lot of people were playing it online as it was one of the free games on Windows PCs in the early noughties. Anyway although the rules are simple it is very beautiful as both sides move forward and strategically crush each other. I have not played it properly in about 15 years and have forgotten most of what I learned but I can assure anyone that wants to play it, it is a serious game. It is a bit like an endgame in chess but more hypnotic. The moves in checkers are simpler which means that you see even further ahead than in chess. A great checker grandmaster put it best when he said, draughts is like looking down a deep well while chess is like looking across the ocean. As someone else has said a strong checker player would rightly destroy a chess player at the game as it contains it's own skill set of openings, traps and endgame stuff that have to be learned just like in chess. There are plenty of opening traps and tricks.

Sadly though, checkers has been "solved" but that was by a super computer & all it proved was that the game ends in a draw. Although chess hasn't yet been "solved" computers are to all intents and purposes unbeatable. Chess is a bigger game but in terms of playability and enjoyment in my experience, they are equal.

what are draughts

Draughts is what checkers is called in the UK. People use both terms over here but in the US it just checkers.

How is "draughts" pronounced? Is it DRAWTS or DRAFTS?

I remember reading an article by Edgar Allan Poe about Maelzel's chess player and he explained the difference between checkers and draughts is that in the former, the moves are "bizarre." Leave it to Poe to use that adjective to describe game rules.

And....triggered