Rules of 100-game checkers

The game invented in the 12th century is, next to chess, one of the most popular board games played at the world level. Learn the basics of 100-game checkers and find out how a 30-year-old Polish girl became a two-time World Champion!

Traditional vs. 100-game variant of checkers

Classic checkers, also known as Brazilian checkers, does not differ from 100-game checkers when it comes to the rules of the game. The rules of the game are identical, however, the difficulty level is slightly higher. Unlike the classic model, 100-game checkers is played on a larger board, which instead of 64 black or white squares has 100 of them. The number of pawns is also increased from 12 to 24.

Pawns are placed in the first four rows on their side of the board. More squares and more pawns allow for more complex actions and longer and more intricate games that can be played at the highest international level. The 100 board is the basis for the most important checkers tournaments all over the world, including the World Championships. For this reason, 100-game checkers are called international.

Basic rules of the game

The rules of 100-game checkers, which are valid all over the world, are clearly defined in the list of International Checkers Rules. The game is played between two players using a board (checkers) and pawns that can only move on black boxes, called active boxes. Pawns are divided into regular checkers, or stones, and privileged pawns called dams. Pawns differ in the way they move around the checkers and in their hitting capabilities.

Players alternate their moves, with the player moving the white checkers starting the game. The stones can only move diagonally forward to the next field free in a straight line. When a pawn gets to the transformation field (the last opposite line from the starting lines), it becomes a lady. To mark the change in the pawn’s powers, another checker, the so-called damask crown, is placed on the transformed tile.

Gameplay

A favored pawn moves diagonally in all directions to any field on the board. The aim of the game is to knock down the opponent’s pawns. It is possible to perform several knockdowns in one move, but under the condition that it is done with one pawn. The operation can be performed in both directions, forward or backward. A knocked down Pawn is automatically removed from the checkers and cannot return to the game. Beating the opponent’s pawn is obligatory and must be done before any other moves. A player is considered the winner of a game when his opponent cannot make the next move due to missing checkers or blocked pawns. Each game can end with one player winning or with a draw.

Polish World Champion

Among the elite professional checkers players is the outstanding Polish checkers player Natalia Sadowska, who was the first Polish representative to win the title of World Champion in this competition. Born in 1991 in Mława, the player has twice won the most important title in the checkers world. The first win came in 2016, when the Polish woman defeated the Belarusian representative of the Netherlands Olga Kamyszlejewa 56:28 two days before the regulation end of the tournament. In the next tournament organized in Tallinn she took only the 4th place.

For the next success she did not have to wait long, because already during the World Championships in Riga in 2018 she reached the final. In the final duel she had to face the legend of women’s international checkers and 16-time world champion, the Latvian Zoya Golubeva. The whole game lasted 11 days, including two full days of break. The Pole led to a draw two games before the end of the duel and eventually won, defeating the outstanding Latvian checkers player with 58:50.

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