Canadian checkers (or Canadian draughts) is a variant of the
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 " a ...
board game
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Many board games feature a ...
draughts
Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...
. It is one of the largest draughts games, played on a 12×12 checkered board with 30 game pieces per player.
History
The game was invented by the French settlers of
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
, Canada; it was named ''Grand jeu de dames''. It is unknown when the game was first played in Canada. The
huff rule was dropped in 1880 after a dispute developed during the Canadian championship match.
The idea of an increased-size international draughts game is older still; boards with 12×12 squares were on sale in London in 1805.
Game rules
Canadian checkers follows the same rules and conventions as
international draughts, the only differences are the larger gameboard (12×12 squares instead of 10×10), and more checkers per player (30 instead of 20). The starting setup is shown in the diagram.
Notation

Games are recorded using the same method of notation used by other draughts variants, extended for a board of 144 squares (see diagram).
See also
*
Hexdame—international draughts rules applied to a hexagonal board
References
Bibliography
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External links
Association Québécoise des joueurs de dames (AQJD)official site of the Quebec draughts association
*{{bgg, 5454, Canadian Checkers
Canadian board games
Abstract strategy games
Draughts variants
Canadian inventions