Checkers comes from a very old game called Alquerque. Alquerque was played on a different kind of board. Around the 12th century, a French person used a chess board to play Alquerque. This was the first checkers game. Later, maybe in 1535, a new rule was added: when a player can jump, he must jump. This made the game more interesting. In most games of checkers, there are two players. The players are at opposite ends of the board. One player has dark pieces, and one player has light pieces. They take turns moving their pieces. Players move their pieces diagonally from one square to another square. When a player jumps over their opponent's (the other player's) piece, he takes that piece.
