Everybody thinks they know checkers, and everybody is a little bit wrong, including me, right up until a patient eight year old set a trap, sweetly offered me a piece, and then took three of mine in one gleeful diagonal swoop. The game is so old and so familiar that it is easy to wave off, and then you sit down for a real one and remember there is a sharp little brain under those plain rules.

The rules really are beautifully simple. Pieces step diagonally forward one square, and you capture by jumping over a rival into the empty space beyond. Chain several jumps in a single turn and you clear a whole swath of board in one leap. Reach the far edge and your piece is crowned a king, free to roam backward as well as forward and suddenly twice as dangerous. Take all your opponent’s pieces, or pin them so they cannot move, and the game is yours.

The depth hides in the forced captures and the long game. You spend it laying quiet traps, offering a piece to win two back, and steering toward the moment your king starts rampaging across the board. Good players see several exchanges ahead, and one careless jump can hand away everything, which is precisely how I lost to that eight year old. I have not entirely recovered.

It costs almost nothing, teaches in a minute, and works for kids and grandparents alike, yet it rewards anyone who actually wants to study it. No luck, no fiddly setup, just two players and a checkered board.

Are you a careful trader or a set up the giant multi jump player? Tell me below, and tell me about the most satisfying chain of captures you ever pulled off. I am taking notes for my rematch.

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