Czuch: there are no pics but here is the words.....

Anti Checkers by Fernando Ferreira:


Introduction:
I decided to write this article for two reasons, the first one was that almost all games have some tips and strategies so that people who start playing it can have some idea of what they are doing and I guess anti checkers was in need of the same, as I never done something like that I guess this would be a challenge for me even because I’m not writing in my main language which makes this the second reason . If someone who is reading this see any mistake I made please say something.
I’m going to use some anti checkers matches as an example so I hope people won’t mind. I used Cake Manchester to allow me to set up the board so I could give some examples.

Rules:
The rules of this game are exactly the same as checkers but the goal is to loose the game ,pretty simple ? maybe not!

Basic Strategy:
The strategy of an huge majority of people who start playing this game is trying to give as many pieces away as possible, that’s the WORST strategy and will not give you any win.
The best strategy, even if it is hard to manage, is try to have more pieces than your opponent and only give them away when you can give all, in anti chess they use the expression “loosing machine” to say when a player will be forced to jump all his opponent’s pieces and I liked that so maybe I use it or it’s initial “LM” . This strategy has some exceptions which I will talk about later.

Starting the game:
I could write two pages about this part without saying everything I wanted to say so let’s keep it simple. First thing is never allow your opponent to trap you in the “Dead Corner” as shown in the image 1 unless you have a pretty good reason for it, it’s going to be hard to get it out of there before you get caught in a “LM”.


Dead Corner

Always be careful with the pieces you have in row 2, 4, 6. A piece in line 1 has only the potential to jump up to 3 pieces as once row 7 is reached it can’t jump any more. On the other hand a piece in any of the row’s mentioned is enough to jump all pieces in board.
Finding wins is one really hard part of the game to master (Even me after so many games loose a lot because I just didn’t see it) so I’m going to leave some here has exercise (2 of them were some top player games and they both missed it) . They will have different types of difficulty, the first type is mainly the basic victories in anti checkers, and the hard ones will be a challenge even for the most experienced players.
In the middle game the strategy remains the same.




Black to move and win -easy



Black to move and win-easy
As I said a piece in row 4 (white row 4) can be forced to jump all pieces




Black to move and win-easy



Black to move and win-medium


Black to move and win-medium



White to move and win- pro



Black to move and win – pro




Black to move and win- Pro

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White has just made this move! Let’s analyse it:
Most probably white is thinking: well if red jumps with the piece in 15 square he looses but he may miss it, if he jumps with the piece in 13 I am going to be in material advantage!
Even_if I invented this game I guess that is what white would be thinking :)! However by doing so white is putting itself in a loosing situation. I’m going to show it. After 2 move the game would be like this (the move not shown is black giving his piece in square 22 away):



Now whatever white moves red can win! I call that a “trapped king win”!
If white tries to take his king out of there black would make the move 1-5 and would easily win
If white tries to move 20 –15 then the game would end up like this:


White trapped and whatever it does it will loose.

So I end this part with some very good advice: Never let your opponent trap one of your kings even if it is not an immediate win!





Flawed wins:
Sometimes you almost see a win but your opponent has some way out. I consider a flawed win when you start giving the pieces away meaning putting yourself in disadvantage hoping that your opponent do not see his way out. I’m not going to show any example of this but I guess it would be good to talk about it.


End games
1vs1- always a win to the player who has the edge advantage

Player to move wins

1 vs. more than one- can be a win a draw or a loose to the player with 1 piece. Looses are the most common .I will post here the only possibility of a draw I can remember and some of the many possibilities of wining with that single piece.

Loosing situations against 1 piece:

White to move and no way out so loose.












White to move-draw position
Red to move –win position for red



2vs2 – Can either be a draw if your both pieces are together and in a “good position” or a win (loose...)I am going to show some “good positions” and some bad positions which would make you loose.

Both black and white in a good position -draw.


The arrows show the moves you need to do if you want to be certain you continue in a good position!

White to move and win:




2 vs. more than 2- 2 pieces if in a good position like the ones I showed before cannot be reached without putting yourself in a loosing situation so that would be a draw, unless you have more than 8 pieces then the endgame would be something has shown in this image. 2 pieces can also be in a winning position as any number of pieces can be. Of course 2 pieces could also loose.


8 vs. 2 win, when white in a “good” position

Exceptions:
Now that you have a deeper understanding of the game I am going to talk about those exceptions. There is a very important quality of your game, which I call “threatening” . For an example imagine this: your opponent has such a game that really restricts your moves, some will make you loose pieces, and some would make you get caught in a “LM”, now imagine you give one or two away and put one of your opponent’s pieces in the back of your game he will not be able to give all his pieces away in most cases will he? So you are not so afraid that he finds a win and then you will have more mobility and he will be in trouble because you the one who have a “threatening” game now.
I will list some exceptions as an example. I’m sure some players disagree with me at this point so I’m welcome to critics.


In this case even if white has two more pieces than black, white moves are clearly restricted! Of course if white finds a way out will be in advantage but now that only depends in the skill of both players! Curiosity: ( I was white and I lost this game vs. Yuri maybe now I would not but at the time I lost it.)


H-2 Square for black and A-8 Square for white is in many cases a good place to put one of your opponent pieces!


Any suggestion and comments (constructive ones) will be welcome! If you think that there is something I could write to this please say it and if I find it convenient I will add it here!


Fernando Ferreira
mailto:Fernas24@hotmail.com