International draughts

International draughts, also called international checkers or Polish draughts, is a two-player abstract strategy board game played on a 10 by 10 board using only the fifty dark squares, with each side commanding twenty pieces at the outset. It belongs to the wider draughts family but differs from English draughts in its larger board and correspondingly larger piece count, producing a longer and more complex strategic contest with no element of chance. Historians are not certain exactly where the variant first took shape, though evidence points to the Netherlands, where boards of this size were likely in use from around 1550 and the twenty-piece setup became standard between 1650 and 1700. The name Polish draughts is believed to stem from Dutch naming conventions of that period rather than an actual Polish origin.