Alquerque (also known as Qirkat from ar, القرقات) is a
strategy
Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...
board game that is thought to have originated in the
Middle East. It is considered to be the parent of draughts (US:
checkers) and
Fanorona.
History
The game first appears in literature late in the 10th century when
Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani mentioned Qirkat in his 24-volume work ''
Kitab al-Aghani'' ("Book of Songs"). This work, however, made no mention of the rules of the game.
In ''
Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations
Board or Boards may refer to:
Flat surface
* Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat
** Plank (wood)
** Cutting board
** Sounding board, of a musical instrument
* Cardboard (paper product)
* Paperboard
* Fiberboard
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'',
R. C. Bell
Robert Charles Bell (1917–2002) was the author of several books on board games, most importantly ''Board and Table Games 1 & 2'' (reprinted as ''Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations''). This work won the Premier Award of the Doctors' ...
writes that "when the Moors invaded Spain they took El-quirkat with them".
Rules are included in ''
Libro de los juegos'' ("Book of games") commissioned by
Alfonso X of Castile in the 13th century.
Spanish settlers
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area.
A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer.
Settle ...
in
New Mexico introduced a four-player variant of Alquerque to the
Zuni.
Rules
250px, An empty abstract Alquerque board
upright=1.75, This board graphic displays Moorish design elements relating to the origin of Alquerque. The algebraic notation facilitates move annotation and gameplay discussion.
Before starting, each player places their twelve pieces in the two rows closest to them and in the two rightmost spaces in the center row. The game is played in turns, with one player taking white and the other black.
* A piece can move from its point to any empty adjacent point that is connected by a line.
* A piece can jump over an opposing piece and remove it from the game, if that opposing piece is adjacent and the point beyond it is empty.
* Multiple capturing jumps are permitted, and indeed compulsory if possible.
* If a capture is possible it must be made, or else the piece is removed (or huffed).
The goal of the game is to eliminate the opponent's pieces.
Additional rules
R. C. Bell
Robert Charles Bell (1917–2002) was the author of several books on board games, most importantly ''Board and Table Games 1 & 2'' (reprinted as ''Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations''). This work won the Premier Award of the Doctors' ...
developed additional rules, saying those given by Alfonso X "are not sufficient to play a game".
These extra rules are:
* A piece cannot move backward (e.g., a piece in the middle of an empty board would have five available moves).
* No piece can return to a point it has previously occupied.
* Once a piece has reached the opponent's back row it can only move to capture opposing pieces.
* The game is won when either:
** The opponent has lost all of their pieces.
** None of the opponent's pieces are able to move.
Bell also includes a scoring system for rating games.
See also
* ''
Adugo''
* ''
Bagh bandi''
* ''
Bagh-Chal''
* ''
Buga-shadara''
*
English draughts
* ''
Fetaix Fetaix is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Morocco. It is very similar to Alquerque. The only difference is that pieces cannot move backwards until they are promoted to Mullah which is the equivalent of King in draughts. Furthermore ...
''
* ''
Kharbaga''
* ''
Komikan''
* ''
Kotu Ellima''
* ''Meurimueng-rimueng peuet ploh'',
tiger game played with forty Tiger game played with forty, translation of ''meurimueng-rimueng peuet ploh'', is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Sumatra, Indonesia. The last part of the name, ploh, is sometimes spelled "plo". It is specifically played by the Aceh ...
* ''
Peralikatuma
Peralikatuma is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Sri Lanka (formerly called Ceylon). It is a game related to draughts ( checkers) and Alquerque as players hop over one another's pieces when capturing them. The game was documented b ...
''
* ''
Permainan-Tabal
Permainan-Tabal is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Indonesia. The game is sometimes referred to as a cross between Alquerque and Draughts
Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group ...
''
* ''
Rimau''
* ''
Sher-bakar Sher-bakar is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Punjab, India. It is a hunt game. It uses an Alquerque board, and therefore, Sher-bakar is specifically a tiger hunt game (or tiger game). There are two tigers attempting to elude and ...
''
*
Sixteen Soldiers
Sixteen Soldiers is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Sri Lanka. It also comes from India under the name Cows and Leopards. A variant of this game is also popular in Bangladesh, where it is known as Sholo guti (Sixteen pieces). One w ...
* ''
Zamma ''Zamma'' is a two-player abstract strategy game from Africa. It is especially played in North Africa. The game is similar to '' alquerque'' and draughts. Board sizes vary, but they are square boards, such as 5x5 or 9x9 square grids with left and ri ...
''
References
External links
An open-source Microsoft C# version of AlquerqueAdfree Android APK version of Alquerque, minimum Android 4.4.2 (API-19)An open-source browser HTML5/Javascript version Alquerque
human vs AI in each combination, game rules and game options. ''Source: https://github.com/OMerkel/Alquerque''
*{{bgg, 11464, Alquerque
Alquerque rules with some sample situations discussed
Abstract strategy games
Traditional board games
History of board games
Draughts variants
Arab inventions
Historical games
