A fun spin on the classic game of checkers! John Schulz of Brookings came up with this novel Idea to combine checkers with rolling the dice.
The game pieces in the small box include 12 blue and 12 red playing pieces (each 1.25 inches tall), a standard die and a game board with images of dice in 6 columns, each column correlating to each side of the die, with 12 rows. This game engages two opponents from ages eight to adults, with two ways to play. In the first version, one person throws the die and moves one of his 鈥渕en鈥 or tokens to a square that matches his throw. Players cannot jump and can only move in a straight line (horizontally, vertically or diagonally). The result eliminates an opponent to win. The second version calls for moving only one direction: forward. The goal is to get as many tokens as possible to the others side without being eliminated.
Dice games date back thousands of years ago. First knucklebones were used, and eventually standardized into the six-sided cubes used today. Senet, recognized as the oldest organized dice game, developed in Ancient Egypt and Sumer. The earliest form of checkers is more recent than dice games. It developed in Ur, of ancient Iraq, around 3,000 BCE. Who would have believed that combining the two ancient games could be so much fun?!