Alquerque

👥 2 players 📍 Indoor📍 Anywhere ⚡ Moderate 🧩 Moderate ⏱ 15-30 minutes 🎂 Ages 8+

Quick Pitch

Alquerque is one of the oldest known board games in the world — a two-player capture game played on a five-by-five grid, where you jump over opponent pieces to take them, and it's the direct ancestor of modern Checkers.

Hook

Alquerque is played on a grid where diagonal lines give each point multiple directions to move, making it feel livelier than a plain square grid. Both players start with 12 pieces filling opposite ends of the board, and the middle is empty. You can capture backward — a sophisticated rule that was rare in ancient games — and captures are mandatory when available. The game is more than 2,500 years old, and medieval Europeans adapted it directly into what we now call Checkers.

Equipment Needed

The Board

5x5 grid with diagonal lines connecting points:

● — ● — ● — ● — ●
|\  |  /|  /|  /|
| \ | / | / | / |
●—\—●—/—●—/—●—/—●
| / | \ | \ | \ |
|/  |  \|  \|  \|
● — ● — ● — ● — ●
|\  |  /|  /|  /|
| \ | / | / | / |
●—\—●—/—●—/—●—/—●
| / | \ | \ | \ |
|/  |  \|  \|  \|
● — ● — ● — ● — ●

Improvising

  • Drawn board: Draw 5x5 grid on paper with diagonal connectors
  • Small cardboard: Draw or mark on small cardboard

Pieces

  • 12 per player (two colors/types)
  • No kings/promotion in standard rules (variant option)

Setup

  1. Draw 5x5 board
  2. Player 1 places 12 pieces on rows 1-2 (all 5 pieces in row 1, all 5 in row 2, plus 2 in row 3)
  3. Player 2 places 12 pieces on rows 4-5 (mirror arrangement)
  4. Rows 3 starts with only 1 empty center point

Standard starting position:

● ● ● ● ●  (Player 1's pieces)
● ● ● ● ●
● ● . ● ●  (center empty)
○ ○ ○ ○ ○  (Player 2's pieces)
○ ○ ○ ○ ○
  1. Designate first player (traditionally black plays first)

Rules

Movement

Regular Piece:

  • Move diagonally forward one square to empty intersection
  • No backward movement in standard rules

Backward Capture: Capture opponent pieces backward (unusual for ancient games; indicates sophistication).

Capturing (Jumping):

  • Jump over an opponent piece to empty square beyond
  • Remove captured piece
  • Multiple captures in one turn allowed (required if available)

Game End

Win: Capture all opponent pieces, OR opponent cannot move

Expert Player

Tips

  • Center control: Center point is valuable; controlling it gives options
  • Piece preservation: Avoid unnecessary capture exchanges
  • Promotion consideration: Some variants add king promotion; radically changes strategy
  • Forward pressure: Advance pieces toward opponent's side

Variations

King Promotion (Modern Variant)

Some modern reconstructions add king promotion:

  • Piece reaching opponent's back row becomes a king
  • Kings move and capture backward and forward
  • Increases game length and complexity

No-King Original

Traditional reconstructions omit king promotion, keeping game simpler.

Learn More — History & Origins

History & Origins

Alquerque is documented in sources stretching back over 2,500 years. The game is mentioned in ancient texts from Egypt and the Near East, and boards scratched into stone have been found at ancient Egyptian sites including the temple complex at Kurna. The Arabic name "Al-Qirkat" appears in records from the early medieval Islamic world, suggesting the game was well-established and widely known across the Arab-speaking territories.

The most important historical document for Alquerque is Alfonso X of Castile's "Libro de los juegos" (Book of Games), compiled around 1283 CE. Alfonso commissioned descriptions and illustrations of the games played in his court, and Alquerque appears prominently alongside chess and tables (backgammon). The "Libro de los juegos" provides both rules and detailed illuminated illustrations — it's one of the most valuable records of medieval European games that exists.

Cultural Context

Alquerque's greatest historical significance is as the direct ancestor of Checkers. Medieval Europeans who encountered Alquerque through contact with the Islamic world adapted it to the 8×8 chess board (already a familiar object) and changed the playing squares from intersections to squares themselves. That adaptation, which occurred sometime in the 12th century in southern France, is essentially the origin of Checkers (called "Draughts" in the UK). The larger board and square-based movement gave the game more room to breathe strategically, but the core mechanics — diagonal movement, mandatory captures, jumping to take pieces — came directly from Alquerque.

Playing Alquerque today is thus a way of playing chess's cousin as it existed before the chess board expanded the game. The five-by-five board feels tight and tactical compared to modern Checkers, with less room for long-range maneuvering and more immediate confrontation.

See Also