By Quincy Fowler

Rarely have I come across anyone comparing chess and checkers who doesn’t consider the latter to be the inferior game. Many people think chess is played primarily by gifted people, while checkers is played mostly by ordinary folks. I’m not much of a checkers player. On a good day, I play at the low master level in chess, and my experience has been that most chess players (including me) are ordinary people whose chess is no more extraordinary than they are.

Where checkers really suffers in comparison to chess is in the volume and quality of literature and instructional materials devoted to each subject. There are thousands of chess books, DVDs and grandmaster-strength computer programs. By comparison, there‘s virtually nothing of the kind for checkers players.

In this article, I don’t intend to contribute anything to the debate (if there is one) on which is the better game. I’m just going to list all the differences and similarities I can think of. (NOTE: I don’t know if it’s standard to call unpromoted checkers pawns, but that’s the term I’m going to use.) First the differences:

1. When you promote a pawn in checkers, it becomes a king. In chess, it promotes to any piece other than a king. (NOTE: It can’t “promote” to a pawn because that wouldn’t be a promotion.)
2. Although both games use the same board, checkers uses only half the squares.
3. Until promotion time, all checkers move the same. Most chess pieces move differently.
4. In chess, when the player to move has no legal move, the game is a stalemate and must be abandoned as a draw. In checkers, if it’s your turn and you can’t move, you lose.

And now the similarities:
1. Central control is important in both games. When you see someone moving flank pawns early on, you now know that you know something that he doesn’t.
2. The ability to calculate as deeply and accurately as necessary is of such importance that it can make up for deficiencies in a lot of other areas.
3. If you lose material without compensation, you will lose the game unless your opponent blunders.
4. Endgame play, even with just a few pieces on the board can be subtle and difficult–even for the best players.

Quincy Fowler is a writer and chess enthusiast living in California.

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