Old Pool Checkers Library

For centuries British were the largest Naval empire with colonies across the continents - if you speak English you likely think of English Draughts as checkers. But there are many more types of checkers, many countries have their own adaptation of the game.

I would roughly break "checkers" into four main categories: 1. Western; 2. Eastern; 3. Middle East; 4. Far East.
1. English and Italian checkers jump forward only and kings move one square at the time.
2. Russian and Polish checkers jump both forwards and backwards and kings move over multiple squares.
3. Turkish and Armenian checkers use two rows of checkers played on both white and black squares.
4. Chinese and Japanese checkers games are only called "checkers" but in fact are different games all together.

Each of the main categories has many varieties, for example the three Polish adaptations are now known as Brazilian (Classic), Pool (Traditional) and International checkers, but then Polish checkers came from Spain, and before that from Egypt!

The American Pool Checkers is an adaptation of the Minor Polish Checkers adjusted to the available Straight Checkers (Draughts) board, with its numeric notation and black side moving first. The other popular name for the game is Spanish Pool. Whatever name you use Pool Checkers is popular in many countries, from Europe to Africa to Americas.

This site is intended for the Internet players seeking information on learning the Pool Checkers game - but those playing Russian or Brazilian versions would find the information useful as game principles are mostly the same.

Feel free to look around, add your comments, ask questions, show something interesting.