Alquerque is the original "jumping" game, the ancestor of Draughts (Checkers, as we called it), Bagha Chal, and many other "jumping" games. Originally from Egypt, Alquerque is one of the oldest known games for which the rules survive. It's a simple, fun, short game for two players.
Pieces
To play, you'll need 2 distinct sets of 12 tokens and an Alquerque board, which you don't have. Just, trust me on that. It's a weird one. If you have an Alquerque board lying around the house you might want to re-evaluate a few things in your life. I don't even have one.
Anyway, you can get one for free here! Then just use pennies and nickels (or anything else) as your pieces and you’re set.
Setup
The game starts with half the board filled with white and half the board filled with black, in kind of an L shape with the center left empty (just look at the picture. I don't know how to explain that verbally).
Play
The goal of the game is to capture all of your opponent's pieces by jumping them. Pieces live on intersections and move along the lines connecting them. Each turn, players can either move one of their pieces along an line into an empty intersection, or they can "jump" one of their pieces over an opponent's piece, provided there is an empty space beyond it on which to land. Any "jumped" piece is removed from the board.
Multiple jumps are permitted, and pieces can change direction mid-jump (although, like most jumping games, different people feel differently about this).
Huffing
If you've played Draughts before, you should be familiar with "huffing." If not, here's a quick rundown of the two possible interpretations:
- If you can take one of your opponent's pieces, you must. You can't choose to pass up a possible capture.
- You can choose to pass up a possible capture, but if you do so your piece can be "huffed," and removed from play by your opponent.
Additionally, some people play with the following rule:
If you have multiple possible moves that would result in a capture, you must choose the move that results in the most captures.
Some people play Alquerque without huffing, which is fine, although huffing does add a lot of strategy to the game. Makes me sad, though, when I have to make bad moves. But so it goes.
The game is over when either one player has no pieces left or both players agree that no more captures will occur. If the latter, the player who has the most pieces left wins. If the player's have equal pieces, the game is a draw and you guys suck.
