Checkers, also known as draughts, is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers is developed from alquerque. The term "checkers" derives from the checkered board which the game is played on, whereas "draughts" derives from the verb "to draw" or "to move".
International draughts is a strategy board game for two players, one of the variants of draughts. The gameboard comprises 10×10 squares in alternating dark and light colours, of which only the 50 dark squares are used. Each player has 20 pieces, light for one player and dark for the other, at opposite sides of the board. In conventional diagrams, the board is displayed with the light pieces at the bottom; in this orientation, the lower-left corner square must be dark.
English draughts or American checkers, also called straight checkers, or simply draughts or checkers, is a form of the strategy board game checkers. It is played on an 8×8 checkerboard with 12 pieces per side. The pieces move and capture diagonally forward, until they reach the opposite end of the board, when they are crowned and can thereafter move and capture both backward and forward.
Chinook is a computer program that plays checkers. It was developed between the years 1989 to 2007 at the University of Alberta, by a team led by Jonathan Schaeffer and consisting of Rob Lake, Paul Lu, Martin Bryant, and Norman Treloar. The program's algorithms include an opening book which is a library of opening moves from games played by checkers grandmasters; a deep search algorithm; a good move evaluation function; and an end-game database for all positions with eight pieces or fewer. All of Chinook's knowledge was programmed by its creators, rather than learned using an artificial intelligence system.
Alexander Moiseyev is a Soviet-born American draughts player. He holds the title of Grandmaster in international draughts, Russian draughts and English draughts. In this latter he was world champion in the 3-move version from 2003 to 2013, winning five world championships, in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2011.
Jan Roberta Mortimer was a draughts or checkers player who entered the game late in life. In 2002 she went to the United States to compete in the U.S. National Championship and won. She later competed at the world level facing Patricia Breen for the women's champion in 2003, then in 2004 won the World Qualifying Tournament for Women. She was married with four children and lived in Otago. In 2011 the World Checkers/Draughts Federation placed her as the highest rated New Zealand player regardless of gender. Jan Mortimer died on 26 July 2015 after an illness.
Amangul Berdieva is an English draughts and international draughts player from Turkmenistan. She is twice women's world champion of English draughts in both 3-Move and GAYP versions.
Guntis Valneris is a Latvian draughts player. He was the 1994 World champion in international draughts, a two-time European champion, two-time World champion in fast draughts, three-time Junior World champion (1984–1986), and multiple-time Latvian national champion.
Darya Aleksandrovna Tkachenko is a Russian, formerly Ukrainian, draughts player holding the FMJD titles of FMJD Master (MF) and Women's International Grandmaster (GMIF). She is four-time women's world champion and twice women's European champion in international draughts. In 2016, she also won the women's world championship of Turkish draughts.
Viktoriya Leontyivna Motrichko is a Ukrainian draughts player, an International Grandmaster since 2005. She was the World champion in Brazilian draughts in 2007 and the winner of the World Mind Sports Games in Russian checkers in 2008.
Yulia Vladimirovna Makarenkova is a draughts player from Ukraine and International Grand Master (GMI). She specializes in Russian checkers and Brazilian draughts played on a small board but also takes part in competitions in International draughts. Yulia Makarenkova is a three-times World champion and two-times European champion in Russian checkers, two-times national champion of the Soviet Union and multiple times Ukrainian national champion in Russian checkers and International draughts.
The World Checkers/Draughts Championship is the tournament of English draughts which determines the world champion. It is organised by the World Checkers/Draughts Federation. The first edition of the men's championship was held in the 1840s, predating the men's Draughts World Championship by several decades. The women's championship has been held since 1986. There are championships held in two versions. One is 3-Move, where players don't begin their game in the starting position but a position three moves in the game. The other is GAYP, where players start from the very beginning.
Lubabalo Nicholas Kondlo is a player of English draughts from South Africa. He holds the title of grandmaster, and is the current world champion in the GAYP version.
Michele Borghetti is an Italian grandmaster of international draughts, Italian draughts and English draughts. In English draughts he was world champion in both 3-move and GAYP versions.
The 2016 Women's World Draughts Championship match at the international draughts was held 2–9 September 2016 in Karpacz (Poland) International Draughts Federation FMJD between ranked second at the 2015 Women's World Draughts Championship Natalia Sadowska (Poland) and ranked third at the same Women's World Draughts Championship Olga Kamyshleeva (Netherlands). The current world champion Zoja Golubeva (Latvia) had informed FMJD that she was not willing to defend her title. Natalia Sadowska won and became 9th women's world draughts champion.
The 2016 World Draughts Championship match at the international draughts was held from December 3–18 in the Netherlands under auspice International Draughts Federation FMJD. The match was scheduled to take place between Jan Groenendijk and Roel Boomstra, who were second and third at last Draughts Championship. World Champion Alexander Georgiev (Russia) has informed FMJD that he will not defend his title. FMJD decided that the next player in the classifications of last WC, Roel Boomstra, should play the Match for World Title against the Vice Champion, Jan Groenendijk.
Joan Caws was a British English draughts player. Caws was a multiple-times English champion, a 1979 British champion and the first Women's World champion, having successfully defended the title in 1987 and 1989.