History

Though many authorities believe the game of draughts originated around 1100 AD, probably in southern France, others disagree. It has been generally held that the inventor created the board game by combining a chessboard with the rules of Alquerque. Earlier evidence has been found of a similar game played in ancient Egypt, and mentions of the game had been made by Plato and Homer in the first few centuries BC. Egyptian origins can be traced as far back as 1600 BC.

The game pieces of draughts in 1100 AD were called "ferses", the name that was given to chess queens in this time period, and the draught ferses moved in the same way as the queen did in chess. However, at this time the rules of chess were still different from the modern form of the game: the queen was able to move only diagonally, and only one square per turn. The one new move this game introduced was the ability to jump over an opponent's pieces and take them. At this time the game was known as "Fierges".

In Philip Mouskat's "Chronique" (1243) is a reference to the use of "Kings", suggesting that the ability to promote a piece existed at this time.

When in Chess "ferses" were renamed to "Dame", the same occurred in Draughts, and the game's name also changed to "Dames". While it is thought that the original Fierges had a compulsory capture rule, there is no evidence that this rule existed in Dames. This rule was however reintroduced in France in 1535. Modern play includes this rule.

The name "Checkers" originated with European settlers in the United States. The version of checkers most often played in the United States is identical to the English variant of draughts, though there are some regional variants of checkers.

In the 18th century an anonymous Pole invented the variant of draughts that is played on a 10×10 board with 2×20 pieces. This variant was called Polish draughts and was later called international draughts.