Alquerque is the medieval leap and capture game that draughts grew out of, played on a 25 point board of 5 rows and 5 columns crossed by diagonals. Each player starts with 12 stones and captures by jumping over an adjacent enemy stone to the empty point straight beyond it, exactly the way a checkers piece does. Capturing is compulsory and jumps chain together, so a single stone can sweep several enemies off the board in one turn.
How to Play Alquerque: Learn the Rules
Alquerque is the medieval leap and capture game that draughts grew out of, played on a 25 point board of 5 rows and 5 columns crossed by diagonals. Each player starts with 12 stones and captures by jumping over an adjacent enemy stone to the empty point straight beyond it, exactly the way a checkers piece does. Capturing is compulsory and jumps chain together, so a single stone can sweep several enemies off the board in one turn.
Objective
The goal of Alquerque is to capture every one of your opponent's 12 stones. There are no promoted pieces and no territory to claim, so the whole game is a running battle over material. A player who is left with no stones, or who cannot move a single stone, loses. If neither side can force the win, the game is drawn.
Setup
The Alquerque board has 5 rows and 5 columns of intersections, 25 points in total, joined by horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. A point where 8 lines meet is a strong intersection and allows diagonal moves; a point where only 4 lines meet is a weak intersection and allows only horizontal and vertical moves. The four corners and the centre are strong points, and strong and weak points alternate across the board. Each player fills the two rows nearest them with 10 stones, then places their last two stones on the two middle row points to their own right. The centre point is left empty. White moves first.
Gameplay
A stone moves one step along a line to an adjacent empty point, in any direction the lines allow. A capture is a short leap: jump straight over an adjacent enemy stone to the empty point immediately beyond it on the same line, and remove the stone you jumped. Capturing is compulsory, so a quiet step is only legal when no jump exists anywhere on the board. If the stone that just jumped can jump again it must keep going, and the whole chain counts as one turn. Only one stone is taken per leap, and a stone may not jump over its own colour or over two stones at once. Diagonal jumps are only possible from a strong intersection, so the lattice quietly decides which captures exist.
Winning
You win by capturing all of your opponent's stones, and you also win if your opponent still has stones but cannot move any of them. Because captures are compulsory, players are often forced into leaps that break up their own defence, and a well timed sacrifice can pull an enemy stone into a chain that takes three or four stones back. When both sides are reduced to a handful of stones and neither can break through, the game is a draw, and repeating the same position three times is scored as a draw here.
Objective
The goal of Alquerque is to capture every one of your opponent's 12 stones. There are no promoted pieces and no territory to claim, so the whole game is a running battle over material. A player who is left with no stones, or who cannot move a single stone, loses. If neither side can force the win, the game is drawn.
Setup
The Alquerque board has 5 rows and 5 columns of intersections, 25 points in total, joined by horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. A point where 8 lines meet is a strong intersection and allows diagonal moves; a point where only 4 lines meet is a weak intersection and allows only horizontal and vertical moves. The four corners and the centre are strong points, and strong and weak points alternate across the board. Each player fills the two rows nearest them with 10 stones, then places their last two stones on the two middle row points to their own right. The centre point is left empty. White moves first.
Gameplay
A stone moves one step along a line to an adjacent empty point, in any direction the lines allow. A capture is a short leap: jump straight over an adjacent enemy stone to the empty point immediately beyond it on the same line, and remove the stone you jumped. Capturing is compulsory, so a quiet step is only legal when no jump exists anywhere on the board. If the stone that just jumped can jump again it must keep going, and the whole chain counts as one turn. Only one stone is taken per leap, and a stone may not jump over its own colour or over two stones at once. Diagonal jumps are only possible from a strong intersection, so the lattice quietly decides which captures exist.
Winning
You win by capturing all of your opponent's stones, and you also win if your opponent still has stones but cannot move any of them. Because captures are compulsory, players are often forced into leaps that break up their own defence, and a well timed sacrifice can pull an enemy stone into a chain that takes three or four stones back. When both sides are reduced to a handful of stones and neither can break through, the game is a draw, and repeating the same position three times is scored as a draw here.
Learn, Play, and Have Fun!
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