DRAUGHTS.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCES ALL THE REST.

"To read, and not to understand, is to pursue and not to take."

THE game of Draughts is decidedly scientific; and though perhaps somewhat less so than Chess, is equally amusing and equally an exercise for the mind. It is governed entirely by calculation, and he who, by study and practice, becomes a good player at it, has really effected something more; for he has schooled his intellect in a system of logical discipline, and accustomed himself to find recreation in a rational and interesting study -no slight ends, I take it. Chess is said to be more than four thousand years old; but Draughts boasts a yet more remote ancestry, if we may believe its historians. The game of Draughts is to Chess what Arithmetic is to Algebra. Antiquarians agree in giving precedence, in point of age, to Draughts, on the ground that, among the New Zealanders and other savage tribes, the game is generally known. Some, however, assert that it is the offshoot of Chess. It is, they say, the Chess of ladies. There would appear to be some truth in the argument; for in nearly all the European languages, Draughts is called

the Game of Ladies. With the French it is the "Jeu des Dames;" the Germans, "Damenspiel;" the Italians, "Il Giuco delle Dame;" the Portuguese, "O Jogo das Damas ;" and so forth. In Gaelic there is but one word, "Taileasg," both for Chess and Draughts; and the Scotch call the Draught board a dam-brod," provably from the German "Damenbrett," or ladies' board.

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But we need not trouble ourselves about its history. Sufficient for us that we have the game, and that it is an amusing and clever game.

It is played, on a board exactly like a Chessboard, by two players. The board is placed so that a double corner is at the right hand of the player. The following is a representation of the

It is unimportant whether the players choose the black or the white squares, so that the double corner is at the right hand.

Each player has twelve men, which move in ; diagonal lines, and take by passing over the opponent on to the empty square beyond. A man enabled to pass on to the last row of his adversary's side becomes a King, which has the power of moving backwards as well as forwards. The game is over when one player succeeds in either taking all his adversary's men or in blocking them so that they cannot move.

The instructions of Edmond Hoyle are so plain and satisfactory, that I give them despite the necessity of repeating what I have already stated.

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The players may place their men on either the black or white squares, but the whole of them must be placed on squares of one colour only. In Scotland, the black squares are generally played on-in England, the play is on the white; consequently, in the former method, a white square in the corner of the board is left to the right hand, and by the latter mode a black one. The operation of the game is very simple; the 'men' are moved always diagonally, never sideways or straightforward, and only one square at a time. If one of the enemy's men stand in the way, no move can be effected, unless there be a vacant square beyond him, in which case he is leaped over; and being thus taken, is removed from the board. As the pieces can only be moved diagonally, and one square at a time, there can be no taking until the antagonists have moved their men into close quarters; and in pushing the pieces thus cautiously forward at the opening,

consists the chief art of the game-the grand object being to hem-in the enemy in such a manner that he cannot move his men. When the men of either opponent have made their way to the opposite end of the board, either by taking or through an open path left by preceding moves, they receive increased power: they are then crowned,' which is performed by placing one of the enemy's captured men on the top of the piece which has penetrated to the enemy's first row of squares; and thus crowned' the piece may be moved backwards as well as forwards-but still diagonally only, and one square at a time. To get a man crowned' is therefore of the first importance, as the more pieces either player has thus invested with the privilege of backward or forward movement, the greater are his chances of beating his adversary's men off the board and winning the game."

In brief, the men move one square at a time, and take in the direction in which they move, either right or left, by jumping over any adverse piece or pieces that may lie immediately in their path with a white square behind. Arrived at the last squares on the adversary's side, the men become Kings, and are crowned by placing one man on the top of the other. Kings take and move either forward or backward.

CHAPTER II.

THE MOVES, AND THE METHOD OF NOTATION.

"The second blow makes the fray."

FOR the convenience of noting the moves of the game, it has been agreed among modern players to number the white squares from 1 to 32 in the following manner :

This system of numbering does not necessarily take place on the board itself, but is rather employed for the purpose of enabling the players to