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English draughts (British English) or checkers (American English and Canadian English), also called American checkers, straight checkers or, damka (Israel), is a form of the board game draughts. Unlike international draughts, it is played on an eight-by-eight squared board (with sixty-four total squares) with twelve pieces on each side. The pieces move and capture diagonally. They may only move forward until they reach the opposite end of the board, when they are crowned or kinged and may henceforth move and capture both backward and forward.
As in all draughts variants, English draughts is played by two people, on opposite sides of a playing board, alternating moves. Traditionally the pieces are either black, red, or white. The opponent's pieces are captured by jumping over them.
In the 1990s, the strongest program was Chinook, written in 1989 by a team from the University of Alberta led by Jonathan Schaeffer. Marion Tinsley, world champion from 1955–62 and from 1975–91, won a match against the machine in 1992. In 1994, Tinsley had to resign in the middle of an even match for health reasons; he died shortly thereafter. In 1995, Chinook defended its man-machine title against Don Lafferty in a thirty-two game match. The final score was 1–0 with 31 draws for Chinook over Don Lafferty. In 1996 Chinook won in the USA National Tournament by the widest margin ever, and was retired from play after that event. The man-machine title has not been contested since.
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