Four different varieties of draughts (Checkers, International Draughts, Dama and Hexdame) have so far been featured in the Mind Sports Olympiad. But these are members of a much larger family of games, many of which are still played in clubs and tournaments in different parts of the world.

Draughts originated in Europe and appears to have been developed from the earlier game of Alquerque, which also involved capturing by jumping. The date when draughts was first played is not known. However, the game seems to have become popular in the 16th century. Earlier references to the game are few and far between.

The main family of draughts games divides into short draughts and long draughts. The difference is in the move of the promoted pieces. In short draughts games, a promoted piece can only move one square at a time, and can only do a short jump, starting and finishing adjacent to the square of the captured piece. In long draughts, a promoted piece moves like a chess bishop and can perform long jumps, jumping many unoccupied squares on either side of the captured piece.

The most well-known variety of short draughts played today is the version played in the USA and UK. This is known as Checkers in the USA and as Draughts in the UK. Another variant is Italian Draughts, which differs from Checkers in two ways. The first is that a player faced with the choice of different captures is forced to take as many pieces as possible, and there are further rules on which choice must be made if there are two ways of making equal numbers of captures. The second difference is that in Italian Draughts an unpromoted piece may not take a promoted one. In both games, an 8x8 board is used and unpromoted pieces cannot capture backwards.

The most well-known variety of long draughts played today is International Draughts, which is used in international competitions and is played in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. It is played on a 10x10 board. Unpromoted pieces can capture backwards, and when faced with a choice of captures a player is forced to play the move which takes the most pieces. An unpromoted piece which reaches the far side of the board may not promote if it can carry on making captures which take it back again away from the edge of the board. A larger variety of draughts is Canadian Draughts, which is essentially the same game played on a 12x12 board.

Some varieties of long draughts are played on an 8x8 board. These include Brazilian Draughts, Russian Draughts and Pool Checkers. In the Brazilian version, the rules are the same as for International Draughts. In the Russian and Pool Checkers versions, there is no requirement to take the largest number of pieces; and there are also special rules relating to the situation of three promoted pieces against one. The difference between these two variants is that in Russian Draughts a piece can reach the final rank by capturing, and then be promoted and carry on capturing in the same move.

Two other forms of draughts show bigger differences from the main family of draughts games. The first of these is Frisian Draughts, played in Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. This game is played on a 10x10 board with promoted pieces making long captures, but orthogonal captures are also allowed by both promoted and unpromoted pieces. Dama, a game which is sometimes called Turkish Draughts, but which is played to a very high level in Bahrain, is unique in using all the squares of the board rather than just those of one colour. It is played on an 8x8 board, with long captures by the promoted pieces, but captures are orthogonal rather than diagonal.

Although these nine forms of draughts are perhaps the most well known and most frequently played, there are many other variants. Some of these are traditional, and some are modern inventions like the hexagonal variety Hexdame.

The best-known site for playing draughts online is Vinco Online Games. This site supports play of most of the variant forms including Russian, Brazilian, Pool Checkers and Italian as well as Checkers and International Draughts.

This is a truly international game. There are strong players not only in European countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Russia and Latvia but also in some African countries (for example Senegal and the Ivory Coast) and all around the world. The game is controlled internationally by the Fédération Mondial du Jeu de Dames (FMJD). The FMJD has some 50 national federations affiliated to it, and is the international body for many other draughts variants too. On its Web site you can find the rules of International Draughts, and some explanation of basic tactics. It also has a tournament calendar, tournament results and historical results and games.

There is also a European Draughts Confederation.

Many of the national federations have their own Web sites:

• To find out information about International Draughts in the Netherlands, visit the KNDB (Koninklijke Nederlandse Dam Bond) site.
• A good French site is this one belonging to Nicolas Guibert, the current French champion.
• Here is the Federazione Italiana Dama site, which covers both Italian and International draughts in Italy.
• And the Russian Draughts Federation covers Russian and International versions as played in Russia.
• This Israeli site has good coverage of Russian and International Draughts, both popular in Israel.
• Both Brazilian and International Draughts are covered at this site from Brazil.
• And Canadian and International formats are on this site from Quebec in Canada.
• Here is the official Mongolian Draughts site.

Here is a list of recent world champions:

The current champion Schwarzman was born in Moscow in 1967, and he learned draughts at the age of nine. He started off playing Russian Draughts, but in 1987 he took up the Brazilian and International versions too. He has been very successful at all three forms of the game, and he has won the world championship of Brazilian Draughts five times.

There is also a rapid-play world title, which in 1999 was held in the Netherlands in April. The winner was Georgiev of Russia. Baljakin of Belarus and Schwarzman of Russia were equal second.

The medal winners at the European Championships held in 1999 were:

This title is held every four years. In 1995 the winner was Georgiev of Russia, and in 1991 it was Valneris of Latvia.

Some 1999 national champions of International Draughts are shown in the table below:

The 1999 Asian championships were held in Ulan Bator in August. The winner was Dur Erdenebileg of Mongolia.

Here are some recent tournament results:

• The Pan-American Championships were held at the start of December 1999. The winner was Johan Koster of Curacao. Iser Kuperman of the USA was second.
• The Junior World Championships were in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands from 17 December 1999. The winner was van der Wijk of the Netherlands.
• The Women's World Championships were decided in Moscow in a play-off held from 17 to 22 December. The competitors were the top three finishers from a tournament in Yakutsk in August. The victor was Zoja Goloebjeva of Latvia. This is the tenth time she has won this title!

Checkers is played in the USA, Canada, the UK and the Caribbean. A lot of information about the game is on the Web site of the American Checker Federation and on this mirror site. The official rules, plus a host of other interesting information about the game, can be found at Sherman Gardner's site. Jim Loy's pages have particularly good information about historical games.

Tournaments are held in two different forms. One is called Go-As-You-Please (GAYP), which means that there is no restriction on the opening moves a player can use. The other format is 3-Move-Restricted, which means that the first three moves of a game are fixed beforehand. There are two separate World Championships, one for each of the two formats.

Each year in the USA there is a National Tournament, open to players from anywhere in the world. The tournament alternates between being a GAYP tournament in odd-numbered years and a 3-Move-Restricted tournament in even-numbered years. The winner has the right to play a challenge match against the World Champion of that format the following year.

The most famous player in the history of checkers was Marion Tinsley, who won a match in 1992 against the very strong computer program Chinook. Tinsley held the 3-Move-Restricted world title from 1955 to 1958, and again from 1975 to 1991 after a break when Walter Hellman was the champion. The late Derek Oldbury of England took the title in 1991, but from 1994 it has been held by Ron "Suki" King of Barbados.

The GAYP World Championship was held by Tom Wiswell from 1951 to 1976, when Oldbury won it. Oldbury held on to it until 1982 when Don Lafferty took the championship, which he retained until 1991. Ron King became champion in 1991, and so he is currently the world champion at both formats.

The 1999 US National Tournament was held from 11 to 15 October, at Niagara Falls. The format was GAYP. The winner was Alex Moiseyev, so he will now challenge Ron King for his GAYP world title. These are the top placings in the Masters Division of the tournament:

Moiseyev, who is now 40 years old, learned to play Russian Draughts at the age of 7. In 1980 he switched to playing International Draughts. In 1991 he moved to the USA and in 1995 became the US champion at International Draughts. The following year he switched to playing Checkers, and quickly made his mark in this form of the game too.

Here are the winners of the US National Tournament in recent years:

In 1999, Ron King successfully won his title defence against 1998 champion Richard Hallett.

There is also a World Mail Play title. This is currently held by George Miller of England who defeated Jerry Childers of the USA in a match in 1998.

Chinook has not played in human tournaments recently, but you can find information about its matches with Tinsley and Lafferty at the Chinook Web site. Here you can also play games against a weaker version of the Chinook program.

Brazilian Draughts has the same rules as International Draughts, except that it is played on a 8x8 board, with just 12 pieces per side. Information about the game in Brazil can be found on Joao Guimaraes's site.

The 6th World Championships of Brazilian Draughts were held at Sao Caetano in Brazil from 1 to 8 October 1999. Eleven different countries were represented, and the winner was Ion Dosca from Moldova. Here are full details of the top places:

In 1997 the champion was Valyk of Belarus.

The Brazilian national champion for 1999 was Amilcar Mariano Carvalho.

The organising body in Russia for Russian Draughts, also known as Shashki, is the Russian Draughts Federation. As well as news and tournament information, this site has a link to the rules in English.

The current Russian champion of the game is Vladimir Skrabov. He won the title in both 1998 and 1999. In 1998 there was also a world championship of Russian Draughts, which was won by Goryunov of Russia; Mocrovich of Germany was second.

Russian draughts is also popular in Israel. The 1999 Israeli champion of Russian Draughts was Alshametsky.

Russian draughts is usually played in Go-As-You-Please form, but sometimes there are tournaments with restricted openings. Tournaments are also organised for two popular variants of Russian Draughts. One is 10x8 Russian Draughts, with the same rules as the main game, but played on a 10x8 board. The other is Poddavki - again the rules are the same as for Russian Draughts, with the exception that the object is to lose all your pieces or have no legal move. These variants, along with ordinary Russian Draughts, are among the games available at Vinco Online Games.

Italian Draughts is much more similar to American checkers than it is to International Draughts. A good place to read the rules in English is Arthur Olsen's site.

The game is organised in Italy by the Federazione Italiana Dama (FID), who also organise International Draughts in the country. Their Web site has a tournament calendar, grading lists and photographs, as well as other information about the game.

This list shows the Italian Draughts champions from the last nine years:

Fiabane, Borghetti and Fero head the latest ELO rating list for Italian Draughts players. And Borghetti is also an accomplished player of International Draughts - he is ranked number 3 in Italy, and in 1991 was the Italian champion.

This is an old variety of draughts, which is sometimes called Turkish Draughts. It was featured at the third MSO, when all the medals were taken by competitors from Bahrain.

Wouter van Beek, President of the Fédération Mondiale du Jeu de Dames (FMJD) said of the game: "This is the first historical variant that shares the richness of International Draughts". One reason for the relative complexity of the game is that it uses all 64 squares of the 8x8 board, so it effectively has twice the playing area of other 8x8 variants. Another reason relates to the rules for capturing. In most draughts games, pieces are not removed until the end of a move and the capturing piece cannot jump the same piece twice. This limits the scope for devastating moves where huge numbers of pieces are captured. In Dama, pieces are removed as they are taken, so there is a greater chance of being able to set up a situation where a huge number of pieces are taken.

One place to find the rules of Dama is Koksal Karakus's page, which has a link to a Yahoo! club for Dama. The page also features some animated Dama combinations. These were mostly played about 100 years ago, when there were professional Dama players called damacibasi. The combinations are truly breathtaking, with forced sequences where huge numbers of pieces are sacrificed in order to set up the final shot!

In Turkey, the game is most popular in Eastern parts of the country, such as Eastern Anatolia. There may be some strong players there, but there is no system of organised tournaments.

Pool Checkers is played in the USA, where it is organised by the American Pool Checker Association. On Arthur Olsen's pages you can find the rules, and information about pool checker clubs throughout the USA. A linked page has some details of basic tactics, in particular the endgame of three kings against one.

There is a National Tournament every year in July, with five divisions - Blue Ribbon, Gold Bar, Junior Master, Master and Top Master. The 2000 tournament will be held in Columbus, Ohio.

Canadian Draughts has the same rules as International Draughts, except that it is played on a 12x12 board, with 30 pieces per side. The game has a long history in Canada, and the results of title matches through the ages are recorded on the site of the Association Québécoise des Joueurs de Dames (AQJD).

There used to be regular World, American and Canadian championships, as well as local championships in Montreal and the province of Quebec. The Canadian championship dated back as far as 1869 when it was won by Alexandre Langevin of Montreal. In 1923, the Canadian Draughts champion William Beauregard challenged International Draughts champion Benedictus Springer to a match of ten games, five each on the 10x10 and 12x12 boards. Beauregard won decisively against the Dutchman Springer by winning the 12x12 games 4-1 while the 10x10 ones finished level.

The championship of Quebec province continued at least until 1997 when the champion was Hubert Laporte. The AQJD maintain a rating list of the current top players of Canadian Draughts and according to their list the strongest player now is Vladimir Lubarski.

Canadian Draughts is also played in India and in Sri Lanka, as shown on this site of Thushara Wickramasinghe. The site has many 12x12 Draughts problems on it. Tournaments in Sri Lanka are held at the YMCA in Colombo. The late T. Robosingho is considered to be the greatest player the island has produced; more recently T. P. D. Jayasinghe won many tournaments. There is a regular all-island championship. The most recent result I have seen is from 1997, when Ramya Gunasekara was the champion.

I have also heard that a similar large version of draughts is played in the Caribbean.

This form of draughts is played in Friesland, in the northern part of the Netherlands. According to David Parlett, it used to be more widespread and was popular in Paris in the 18th century. He also mentions that similar forms of draughts have been reported in Thailand and in Armenia.

The game is organised locally by the Dambond Fries Spel. On their Web site, there are a tournament calendar, results, and details of clubs. You can also find the rules in three languages, some puzzles and a Frisian Draughts course. And there is a record of a game played in June 1999 between Frisian Draughts champion Teake Kooistra and a computer program Lusaris II.

The Dambond Fries Spel organises an annual individual championship, which has been running since the 1930s. This table shows the results from the 1999 Individual Championships:

Kooistra has now won the title 6 times, but he has some way to go to catch up with van der Groot who has won 12 times, and Dirk de Vries who has been the champion on 10 occasions.

The champion club in 1999 was Hartwert, and the runners-up were Wirdum. Wirdum have won this title on 18 occasions, but Hartwert are now champions for the 22nd time!

There are other local traditional varieties of draughts, such as Philippine Draughts, which is described in David Parlett's Oxford History of Board Games.

But there are also lots of modern variants. These include Croda, the modern Croatian variant, Fractagonals from Bonnyrigg games in Scotland, and also Hexdame, invented by Christian Freeling. Hexdame is extremely interesting because it uses the same rules as International Draughts but transfers these to a hexagonal board. One of the advantageous results of this is to make it less likely that the game will be a draw.

A more distant modern relative of the draughts family is Lasca, invented by the chess master Emanuel Lasker. The game of Bushka by Freeling incorporates the capturing method of Fanorona into a draughts-like game, and Emergo by Freeling and van Zon is based on the capturing method in Lasca.