Fins de Partie aux Dames

[jaguar72]

And now for something completely different. In one of the many excellent book shops in the French Quarter in New Orleans last year I came across this book: Fins de Partie aux Dames ("Checker Game Endings", more or less...) by Henri Tranquille and Gerard Lefebvre. It is all in French (although there is very little text, just an introduction and a dedication) and it was published in 1974. It otherwise consists of more than 250 endings in 12 x 12 (!) checkers, a game I was not at all familiar with although I knew it existed. The endings are all "white to play and win" ("les blancs jouent et gagnent") and there are diagrams, two to a page, of a 12 x 12 board printed with orange and white squares with the starting position of the problem; the checkers are black and white. There is also a reference diagram ("damier numerote") with the 72 dark squares numbered from left to right beginning in the upper left. The solutions are all in the back of the book with no notes other than an occasional variation denoted by a letter; black moves are placed in parenthesis to make things a bit easier. The composer's name is given above each diagram. It is all quite elegant. The book was only three bucks so I bought it. It appeared to have never even been opened.

The rules for 12 x 12 are the same, as far as I can determine and as everybody else on the Forum probably already knows, as those for 10 x 10, and it takes some time and a brain adjustment to get used to the dizzying power of the king and the backward jumping pieces; it's very complex stuff (at least I think so...). Here is a typical problem (one of the easier ones, I guess): black checkers on 4 and 48, white checkers on 21, 52 and 58. Les blancs jouent et gagnent!

Solution: 21-14 (48-54), 14-8 (54-60), 8-2 (60-65), 2-13 (4-10), 52-47 and it's all over.

There you have it. I don't think 12 x 12 is going to be "solved" (whatever that means these days) anytime soon. It is fascinating stuff. I can post more of the endings if anybody is interested.

Regards to all,

Jaguar72/Gary

[chipschap]

Le jeu de dames Québécois! Pour plus de renseignements voyez: http://dames.quebecjeux.org (en français, bien sûr).

I tried to buy some stuff from AQJD a few years back but they didn't seem interested in selling outside of Canada. The book you mention is listed here along with some others:

http://dames.quebecjeux.org/materiel/#litterature

Everyone here probably knows there is also a 12x12 version called "Sri Lankan" checkers with rules that are nearly the same as Canadian 12x12, at least according to another French book, "Les jeux de dames dans le monde."

[George Hay]

Gary, nice find! Canadian Checkers, or what Fred Reinfeld would call " Montreal or Quebec checkers" is a magnificent game.
Certainly if you post a few more easy problems it would be most appreciated!

--George Hay

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Certainly if you post a few more easy problems it would be most appreciated!

Here are several compositions in Canadian Checkers of Russian Problematic GM E. Zubov

#1. E. Zubov

36,65,30,6,13,49,44,61,34,31+.

#2. E. Zubov

61,24,60,13,6,36,53,53,58+.

#3. E. Zubov




23,72-65(67),6(52)37!,64,60!.6:50:13

#4. E. Zubov


23,72-65(67),6(52)37!,64,60!.6:50:13

[George Hay]

Mr. Alex, thank you for posting the Canadian Checkers problems by GM E. Zubov...
and congratulations on winning the 2016 11-Man Open!

--George Hay