Alquerque
the leaping game of old Spain · twelve pieces a side on a lattice of lines
SPAIN · WRITTEN DOWN IN 1283
Twelve pieces a side on a lattice of twenty-five points. Alfonso's rule is the soul of it: a capture offered must be taken, and a leap begun must be finished.
The history
In the king's book of games
In 1283, in Seville, King Alfonso X of Castile finished his Libro de los Juegos — the Book of Games — a great illustrated survey of the games of his world. Among its chess problems and dice games sits alquerque, drawn and described in full: the board, the twelve pieces a side, the leaps, the captures. It is one of the oldest complete rule-sets for any board game in Europe, and the game overleaf is Alfonso's game, played as he printed it.
The name and the road it travelled
Alquerque comes from the Arabic al-qirkat, and the game arrived in Spain along the roads of the Moorish world. Boards cut into stone that may be far older are claimed for it in Egypt and the Near East; the claims are possible but unproven, and the honest certain record begins with Alfonso's book — which is record enough for any game.
The mother of draughts
Alquerque's great invention is the compulsory leap: a capture offered must be taken, and a leaping piece must keep leaping while it can. When the game travelled north into France and a promoted piece was added — the crowned king of draughts — alquerque grew into the game the world now plays as draughts or checkers. This is the parent game, unpromoted and unforgiving.
The honest footnote
Alfonso's book is the source, and the school plays what it describes: captures are compulsory, chains must be completed, captures may go backward as well as forward, and there are no kings in the old game. A player may not refuse a capture, and may not stop a chain halfway — the book is plain on both.
The rules, plainly
A game for two players · Pale first · from the Book of Games of Alfonso X, 1283
Setting up
Set twelve pieces on the points of your half of the lattice, as the board shows: every point of your two home rows, and the two points of the middle row on your side of the centre. The centre point — ringed on the board — starts empty. Pale moves first.
Stepping
On your turn, move one piece along a drawn line to the next point, if it is empty. Pieces step in any direction the lines allow, forward, sideways, or backward — diagonals exist only from the points where a diagonal is drawn, which is every other point, exactly as the lattice shows.
Leaping — the heart of the game
If an enemy piece stands next to yours with the point directly beyond it empty, you may leap over it and take it. If a capture is open anywhere on your side of the board, you must take a capture — stepping quietly instead is not allowed. And if your landing opens another leap, the same piece must keep leaping in the same turn until no leap remains. A turn may clear a whole diagonal in one breath. Captures may go backward as readily as forward.
Winning
Take all the enemy pieces, or hem them in so that none can move, and the board is yours. If a hundred and twenty turns pass without a capture, call it honours even and set the board again.
Play it here
Play against the school, at Apprentice, Journeyman, or Master strength — or pass the screen and play a friend.
Your side
Computer strength
THE RULES, PLAINLY — THIS VERSION
The board has twenty-five points. Each side begins with twelve pieces filling its own half; the centre point starts empty. Pale moves first.
Stepping. A piece steps one point along any line — forward, sideways, backward, or diagonal where a diagonal is drawn — onto an empty point.
Capturing. A piece captures by leaping over a neighbouring enemy onto the empty point just beyond it, in any direction along a line. If a capture is open, you must take it. And if the piece that just leapt can leap again from where it landed, it must keep going — one turn can take several pieces in a chain.
Winning. Take all the enemy's pieces, or leave them with no move at all. There are no kings in alquerque — that crown was draughts' later invention. A hundred and twenty turns without a capture is called honours even.