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JThomson's Checkers (Other)
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| [February 9, 2014 07:34:03 PM]
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For the second log I'll focus more on the strategy of the game.
During the second game I chose to adopt a more aggressive style of play. Checkers can be played defensively by focusing on making sure pieces have other pieces to block an opponents attempts to jump, or agressively by attempting to move pieces so that they can quickly capture opponents pieces and move to the other side of the board.
Moving defensively will prevent you from losing pieces early on, but has the drawback of limiting your options as fewer and fewer spaces become available. The primary risk in a defensive strategy is that your opponent will be able to force you to make poor moves simply for lack of options, although the same risk can apply to them as well.
Moving aggressively typically allows you more freedom, but by not protecting your pieces as well that freedom often comes at the sacrifice of more pieces during the early game. The primary risk of playing aggressively is that your opponent may be able to prevent you from moving pieces to the opposite end of the board and get kinged pieces, and that they may be able to exploit weaknesses in your defense in order to reach your side more quickly.
My aggressive style gave my opponent an early lead and they exploited some openings to get a piece across the board and get it kinged. However, due to the location of their kinged piece it was blocked by a piece on my right side and another piece on my back row that would be able to capture it if it moved. I meanwhile was able to get a piece to the other side to be kinged by sacrificing another to free a path for it.
Sacrificing a piece so another can be kinged is typically considered a good tradeoff, as the extra degree of motion kings have usually make them much more valuable than normal pieces. When my piece was kinged the opponent was forced to make another jump which prevented them from moving pieces out of the way for a three piece jump which my new king made.
This placed my king in an ideal position, by moving by back piece which had been able to jump my opponent's king the opponents king forward, I was able to force my opponents king to capture it, moving it into a position from which my king could capture it on the next turn, leaving me with the only kinged piece on the board.
My opponent continued to attempt to move pieces forward for three moves without presenting any obvious avenues to capture pieces. After the fourth I noticed an opportunity, moving a piece forward I forced my opponent to capture it, which in turn set one of my pieces up to jump twice and reach the other side of the board.
My opponent moved their piece forward to be kinged and I captured another of my opponents pieces with my newly kinged checker. At this point I pointed out to my opponent that they could make no moves that would not result in me winning in two moves, and he conceded the match.
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| [February 9, 2014 07:01:10 PM]
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For the first log entry I'll go over a game and discuss the basics of gameplay. The game begins on an 8x8 chess board with 12 red and 12 white game pieces for two players on opposite ends of the board oriented so that each player has a black square in their near left corner. The red game pieces are placed on the black squares of the first three rows of the first player's side of the board, and white game pieces placed on the black squares of the second player's side. The red player moves first and can move a piece one square diagonally into any open spot. Pieces can move only diagonally onto adjacent black unoccupied squares, and can normally only move forwards.
I moved my piece second from the left in the front row forward and to my left. The opponent moved his piece to my front left row forward into the wall. For a time we both moved defensively until I moved one of my left pieces forward to force him to capture it. Pieces can capture pieces from the opposing team by "jumping" over them. A piece jumps by going over an opposing piece diagonally when there is an open square in the next space. If a piece jumps to a location from which it can jump again, it must do so immediately. In checkers, if a player can make a jump, they must do so. If more than one jump is possible, they can choose which to take.
I jumped the piece which had just jumped mine, and due to the defensive nature of the game so far the opponent was forced to move a piece into position for my piece to jump again and move into the far side of the board. When a piece reaches the edge of the opponent's side of the board it becomes "kinged" and from that point onward can move both forward and backward. Using my kinged piece allowed me more freedom of when to move my pieces, and I was able to force the opponent to move his pieces where they could be captured by mine. With only a few pieces lost I was able to capture most of the opponents pieces minus three which were together in the three leftmost squares of the third fourth and fifth rows. My opponent couldn't move, so I won the game. In checkers, you win the game whenever your opponent cannot make a move. Normally this happens by capturing all of their pieces, but it is possible to win by "blocking" their pieces as well.
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JThomson's Checkers (Other)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 9 February, 2014
GameLog closed on: Sunday 9 February, 2014 |
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