If you have a cool vintage 1930s oak checkerboard table, what kind of ceramic playing pieces would you make? Why not clay gumwads, and why not chew them yourself for authenticity? Oh, and why not store the pieces not in play on the underside with concealed magnets and metal strips? It certainly makes your American Checkers or Turkish Draughts games more unique and delightful.
Game Play
American Checkers
Goal is to capture all your opponent’s pieces or render them unable to move.
Start with 12 pieces per side of two different colors arranged on the dark squares in the first three rows. (A light corner square is to each player’s right on the board.) Pieces move diagonally forward on the dark squares only, one square at a time, to an unoccupied square. If an adjacent square is occupied by an opponent’s piece with an open square behind it, you must jump and capture that piece, taking it off the board. If a capturing play lands you next to another opponent’s piece, you must continue jumping/capturing until you can no longer can. Upon reaching the opposite side, the piece becomes a double – or King – and may continue playing forwards and backwards and jumping.
Dama (Turkish Draughts)
The goal is to capture all your opponent’s pieces or render them unable to move.
Start with 16 playing pieces each, placed in all of the squares, light and dark, of the second and third rows of the board. Lightest color moves first.
Pieces can only move one square orthogonally (straight line) forwards or sideways, but must jump an opponent and remove the piece immediately and continue jumping if they are able. Upon reaching the opposite side, the piece becomes a double – or King – and may continue playing by moving any number of squares forwards, backwards or sideways and capturing pieces along a straight line.