Polish or International Draughts

In our days, draughts (checkers) is usually played on a chequered board, regardless the number of squares.


7x7	8x8	10x10	12x12

Not only the size of the board varies, there are also many different rules. An ancient variety, in the literature of board games called Anglo-French, is the game played on the 8x8 board in, among other countries, Great Britain and the USA. A much more evolved variety is Polish draughts, today often called International Draughts. Some diagrams with combinations reveal the differences between these two varieties. First an endgame and a combination in the Anglo-French variety, then three combinations in the Polish variety.

White to play and draw: 22-17 (14-18) 17-13 (10-14) 13-09 (14-17) 25-22 (18x25) 09-06 (25-29) 06-01 (29-25) 01-06 (25-22) 06-09 draw.

David Alexander Brodie (New Zealand) (19th c.), a blindfold player: in 1892 six games simultaneously

Compositon by James Wyllie. White to play and win: 19-16 (12x28) 20-16 (11x20) 21-17 (14x30) 23x5 (30x23) 27x2 (06-09) 13x06 (03-08) 31-26 (08-11) 26-22 (11-15) 22-17 (15-19) 02-07 (10-15) 07-11 (1x10) 11x18 White wins
	The legendary Scottish world champion James Wyllie (left), almost invincible in the period 1860-1900, in one of his matches against his opponent Robert Martins [Scrapbook Scottish Draughts Association, c. 1900]

Polish draughts is the farthermost developed variety. Not only because of the larger board (C), which allows more complicated combinations: the Polish variety is played with a long king (doubleton) and the singleton can take in backward direction. But the first guarantee on spectacular combinations is the obligation to take the longest capture when there is a choice, as these three compositions prove: White to play and win.

S. Perepelkin (Russia)

42-37 (36x47) 46-41 (47x36) 37-31 (36x27) 32x01 (23x32) 38x18 (29x49) 40x20 (25x43) 16x07 (49x12) 07x18 (15x24) 01-06 (13x22) 06x13 (19x08) 45-40 (35x44) 50x48 White wins.

A.P. de Zwart (Netherlands)

15-10 (14x5) 20-15 (31x42) 34-29 (25x32) 47x7 (28x50) 26-21 (23x45) 21x03 (02x11) 24-19 (13x24) 15-10 (5x14) 03x06 (50-28) 06x50 White wins.

J. Bus (Netherlands)

43-38 (36x47) 20-15 (32x43) 15x02 (47x49) 23-18) 02-35. White threatens 50-44, and therefore Black is obliged to play (43-48). Nevertheless White wins: 50-44 (49x40) 35x34 (48x30) 25x34.

What is the origin of Polish draughts, the variety with the potency to grow into the most popular draughts game in the world?

The prevailing story runs as follows. Polish draughts was invented at the Palais Royal in Paris about 1725 by an officer of the court of Philippe II of Orléans in collaboration with a Pole who went by the name of The Polonese. They played the variety we call Anglo-French. Their innovative attitude led to improvements; they extended the board from 64 to 100 squares, among other things. And they gave the new variety the name Polish draughts, an honour to the Pole.

A romantic story with a royal touch about an army officer and an foreigner, people lick their lips over it. The writer of a draughts book will avail himself of the opportunity to captivate his readers with appealing historical facts. And besides, he is covered by Harold Murray, who presented the tale as historical truth in his study on board games [Murray 1952:80]. Murray had found it in a French draughts book written by Manoury in 1787: “This may well have been the way in which the new game was evolved”, wrote Murray. Manoury managed a coffee house in Paris. It is uncertain if Manoury wrote on the history of draughts himself. Click here for the real author.

The historical truth is less attractive, of course. Dutch draughts historians made two discoveries. They came across the name Polish draughts in a dictionary, published in 1710, and they found a two sided board with a morris pattern and a chequered pattern with 100 squares that was made in 1696. Both discoveries demonstrate that Manoury’s story was patently incorrect. They invited to further inquiries, with the following results.

In the second part of the 16th c., the 64 squares board was extended to 100 squares. Probably in Amsterdam, given the popularity of draughts in this town. The Dutch draughts historian Gerhard Bakker made the suggestion that the 10x10 board could have been proposed by an influential engineer who pleaded for the introduction of a decimal arithmetical system. But the engineer has not mentioned the game in any of his publications, so Bakker’s proposal is perhaps not more than a pretty guess.

The new game on 100 squares was played was 2x15 pieces, as we know from an accidental remark in 1617. In the late 17th c., the number of pieces was extended to 2x20. The Dutch called the 20x20 variety Pools, Polish, a negative name meaning something like ‘strange’, ‘odd’. Click here for details.

See for detailed information on the age of the 100 squares draughts board Stoep 2005:61-69.

Sometime in the 1670's or the 1680's, Polish draughts must have been introduced in France. The author of the first French draughts book, Pierre Mallet, described some European draughts varieties, but did not mention any variety on 100 squares. About 1690, the game was played at the royal court: there is a painting of three grandsons of Louis XIV playing draughts on the 10x10 board; click here for details.

How did the game reach France? Undoubtedly through a slow march to the south starting in the region of Amsterdam. But the French can have borrowed the game easily from the many Dutchmen who came to France in the 17th c., for most of those Dutch immigrants lived and worked in Amsterdam and surroundings before their migration. Click here for information on dissemination of ideas.


Aart de Zwart c. 1960	Jaap Bus (right), Amsterdam 1959

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2x15 singletons 2x20 singletons: Polish draughts