Turkish draughts

Turkish draughts is a checkers variant played across the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, including in Turkey, Greece and Egypt, and stands as a distinct tradition within the wider draughts family of capture games. It is played on an eight by eight board with sixteen pieces per side, but unlike international or English draughts its ordinary men move and capture not only diagonally but also orthogonally forward and sideways, while promoted kings move any distance along orthogonal lines, giving the game a noticeably different tactical character from its diagonal only cousins. An organized competitive scene has grown around the game in recent years, with official World Championships held annually since they began in 2014, showing that Turkish draughts remains an actively played tradition rather than only a historical curiosity.