Checkerberry
. See Partridge Berry; Wintergreen
Checkers or Draughts, a game of skill. It is played by two persons with twelve disks or men each, on a checkered board of sixty-four squares. The squares are colored in two alternating colors, it matters not what, so that the squares stand in clear contrast. The game is played on the squares of a single color. In the beginning the board is placed so that each player shall have a double corner as 1-5 or 28-32 at his right hand. Each player arranges his twelve men in three rows, so as to occupy the squares numbered 1-12 and 21-32 respectively. The men of one player are called the white; those of the other player, the black. A man may move in either diagonal direction forward, or toward the enemy. Thus white, on 23, may move to 18 or to 19. Black, on 12, may move to 16. When a white man reaches 1, 2, 3, or 4 he has reached the king row and becomes a king. He should be crowned or doubled by a second disk. He may now move backward. A king at 15 may move to any one of the four squares at its corners; that is to say, 10, 11, 18, or 19. In like manner, a black man reaching 29, 30, 31, or 32 becomes a king. A king is more valuable than a man. Whenever a man finds an adversary on the next diagonal square with a vacant square beyond, he may jump over and take that man, thus removing him from the board. If a white man lay at 19, and a black man at 15, and it were white's turn to move, white might take black by jumping to the vacant 10. The object of the game is to remove the men of one's adversary from the board, or to block them so that they cannot move. When the number of men on each side has been so reduced that there is no hope of either player winning, the game is said to be drawn. Any number of onlookers may be present, but it is considered a want of etiquette to assist either player.
The rules of the game may be learned best by following the plays in the following table. Black moves first, and black wins the game:
| Black. | White. | Black cont. | White cont. |
| 11 to 15 | 22 to 18 | 29 to 22 | 26 to 17 |
| 15 to 22 | 25 to 18 | 11 to 15 | 20 to 16 |
| 8 to 11 | 29 to 25 | 15 to 18 | 24 to 20 |
| 4 to 8 | 25 to 22 | 18 to 27 | 31 to 24 |
| 12 to 16 | 24 to 20 | 14 to 18 | 16 to 11 |
| 10 to 15 | 27 to 24 | 7 to 16 | 20 to 11 |
| 16 to 19 | 23 to 16 | 18 to 23 | 11 to 8 |
| 15 to 19 | 24 to 15 | 23 to 27 | 8 to 4 |
| 9 to 14 | 18 to 9 | 27 to 31 | 4 to 8 |
| 11 to 25 | 32 to 27 | 31 to 27 | 24 to 20 |
| 5 to 14 | 27 to 23 | 27 to 23 | 8 to 11 |
| 6 to 10 | 16 to 12 | 23 to 18 | 11 to 8 |
| 8 to 11 | 28 to 24 | 18 to 15 | B. wins |
| 25 to 29 | 30 to 25 |
The origin of the game is buried in antiquity. It is an ancient game with the Chinese, and was well known to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. A curious bit of sculpture on the wall of a chamber in ancient Thebes represents Rameses III playing a game of checkers with a goddess. The earliest description of the game in English is dated 1566.