Alquerque

Alquerque

The common ancestor of the draughts family, recorded in Alfonso X’s Libro de los Juegos in 1283. It is the oldest game in this hub and the least certainly known: the medieval source shows the board and names the game but does not give the rules, most likely because they were common knowledge at the time.

Everything below beyond “move along a line, capture by jumping” is modern reconstruction, and the sources disagree with one another. Where they do, the choice this project has made is recorded in the frontmatter rather than hidden in the prose.

The board

Twenty-five points, and the lines matter more than the points. The board is drawn by:

1. a 5×5 orthogonal grid,
2. both long diagonals, corner to corner,
3. four more diagonals joining the midpoints of the four sides.

The result is that not every point has diagonal connections. Points alternate: some carry eight lines, some only four. A piece may move only along a line that is actually drawn, so this board is a graph, not a grid with a direction offset.

Setup

Twelve pieces each. Each player fills the two rows nearest them plus the two rightmost points of the middle row, as that player looks at the board. The centre point is the only empty one, and the position has 180° rotational symmetry.

Movement

A piece moves from its point to any empty adjacent point connected by a drawn line.

Capture

A piece captures by jumping an adjacent enemy piece along a drawn line to the empty point directly beyond. Multiple jumps may be chained, and need not continue in the same direction.

Capture is compulsory. A player who fails to capture when able may have the offending piece removed by the opponent before the next move — the huff. (See the frontmatter: this is the modern convention and a Moddable decision, not a historical fact.)

Promotion

None. There are no kings in Alquerque.

Winning

A player wins by capturing all the opponent’s pieces, or by leaving the opponent unable to move.

Attribution

Traditional, recorded in the Libro de los Juegos commissioned by Alfonso X of Castile, 1283. Public domain. The playable ruleset is a modern reconstruction, R. C. Bell’s being the best known.