Lasker Checkers

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One of the most colorful figures in chess history was the second world champion Emmanuel Lasker. He held the chess throne for the longest time, for 27 years. However, in addition to chess, Lasker also showed interest in other games in which two partners or two coalitions of partners fight. He played checkers and the Japanese game “go” quite well, took part in official compositions for the card game of bridge, and even wrote a textbook on this game.

So it’s not surprising that Lasker came up with a new board game - one of Tserra’s versions of checkers. This game, called Lasker’s checkers (or, as it was also called, “weasel”) was quite common in the first decades of the 20th century, and in 1920 a tournament for the game of “weasel” was even held in The Hague.

This game is played on the white fields of a square board that has 7 horizontals and 7 verticals (all corner fields of the board are white (see figure). The playing fields are designated by numbers from 1 to 25. Each player has 11 checkers. White players place checkers on fields 1-11, and black ones on fields 15-25. Checkers move only forward (as in regular checkers), and they do not can stand neither on the field occupied by their checker nor on

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a field occupied by an opponent’s checker. With checkers, too, only forward, jumping over the opponent’s checker onto the free field. However, unlike ordinary checkers, the enemy’s checker is not removed from the dock, but is “captured,” that is, placed under the checker that captured it. Therefore, “columns” appear on the board, consisting of several checkers of different colors.

The column moves in the same way as a simple checker. If the enemy’s checker bets the column, then one top checker is removed from the column and placed under the checker that captured the column. The rest of the rules are the same as in ordinary checkers - you can have several enemy checkers in a row; taken checkers are required; if there are several enemy checkers under attack, then any of them can be attacked; the taken checker is taken immediately after jumping over (and not at the end of all jumpings). If the bet is not a separate checker, but a column, then the taken checker is classified as a seidu of the column. The color of each column is determined by the color of the top checker. For example, a “bbitsini” column consisting of two white checkers and four black checkers acts as a white camp piece. But if the enemy succeeds in freeing his checkers by hitting this column twice and removing the top two white checkers, then a column of four black checkers appears on the battlefield, which naturally acts on the side of Black.

If the checker reaches the opposite side of the dock, then it turns into a “king”. The queen has the right to move forward and backward one move and hit the opponent’s checkers adjacent to her forward and backward. However, if a checker reaches the last line in the process of taking the opponent’s checkers, then although it turns into a king, it can hit like a damka, only starting from the next move of access to the column, then only its top checker becomes a king. During the battle, a tight column can be obtained, consisting, for example, of two white queens, three simple white ones, a simple black one and three black queens ($\delta_\pi$, $\delta_\pi$, $\delta_\pi$, $\delta_\pi$, $u_\pi$, $u_\pi$). Such a column acts like a white queen. If Black gets two white queens from this column, it will act as a simple white checker. If, during further fighting, three white checkers are removed from this column, then it will begin to act like a simple black one. Finally, if one black checker is removed from it, it begins to act as a black queen. The goal of the game, as in regular checkers, is to either eat all of your opponent’s checkers or lock them up.

Here is one recording of a game played by Lasker.

1. 9-12 15:9; 2) 5:13 18-14; 3) 10:18 16:10; 4) 6:14 13:15; 5) 1:9 17-13; 6) 10:16 20:6; 7) 2:10 9:1; 8) 14-17. Every such simple mind… 8)… 21:13; 9) 18-21 24:18; 10) 10—14 18:2; 11) 7-10 13:7; 12) 4:24 2:4; 13) 24-21 Combination idea! 13… 4:10; 14) 21:7 and White won.

A number of interesting combinators of problems are associated with Lasker checkers. For example, Lasker and the famous German mathematician Landdu proved that checkers from different camps cannot be mixed in a column: either the entire column consists of checkers of the same color, or the upper part is made of checkers of one color, and the lower part is made of checkers of a different color. Count for yourself how many different columns there can be that satisfy this condition.

H. B.