English draughts

English draughts, known as checkers in American usage, is a two-player abstract strategy board game played on an 8 by 8 checkerboard using 12 pieces per side. Pieces advance diagonally and capture by jumping over an opposing piece, and any piece that reaches the far edge of the board is crowned as a king, gaining the ability to move and capture backward as well as forward. The game contains no element of chance, resting entirely on positional strategy and tactics, and a typical casual game lasts roughly ten to thirty minutes. In 2007 a team of Canadian computer scientists led by Jonathan Schaeffer weakly solved the 8x8 game, proving that perfect play by both sides ends in a draw from the standard starting position.