Talk:American Pool Checkers

Headline text
Origins of pool checkers (or checker pool)? ==

I'm curious what Wikipedia visitors know of the origin of pool checkers. As a child whose Louisiana/Texas family was part of the Great Migration of African-Americans out of the South to points north and west, I learned the game as "checker pool." One account has this particularly aggressive form of checkers (originally widely known as "Spanish pool checkers") being played in Spain and entering the U.S. via the Spanish colonies. The game traditionally has been extremely popular among African-Americans (more so than traditional checkers) in the South, notably in Texas/Louisiana and Florida. -- deeceevoice, June 13, 2004

Champions listing
I don't think it's a good idea to have the long list of pool checkers champions in the article. What does everyone else think? Eric119 02:41, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

Uncertainty about rules
I'm not any kind of expert, but it seems to me that the discussion of the rules presented here is not quite correct--or is at least ambiguous on key points. This is based on my reading of the rules at pages such as this. I don't feel qualified to make any changes, but I present the following:

1. The article reads "a piece may move both forward and backward," but I do not think this is generally the case. A piece may capture backwards, but may only move forward on a non-capturing move, yes?

2. The article also states "a king can jump any number of squares forward and backward as long as one square is empty past the opponent," which is true if the king is making a capturing move, but neglects completely the non-capturing move of a king. My understanding is that a king may move as a Chess bishop--any number of spaces in a straight-line diagonal--without making a capture. (This is, of course, only possible if no capturing moves are available, since captures are still compulsory).

3. Lastly, and of some significance, no mention is made of the fact that a checker can not promote to a king by simply touching the back rank--it must end its move there, which is impossible if a further (backwards) capture is available to it after landing on the back rank.

Thoughts?--158.111.5.34 (talk) 13:39, 9 March 2009 (UTC)


 * That's a good reference for the rules. I hadn't noticed the problems you list above the last time I took a look at the article.  If you wish, go ahead and make the changes yourself, or I can take a shot at the change in a couple of days (won't really have time until then).  Don't worry about being qualified to make changes -- if you've got a good reference, that's all the qualifications you should need.  Thank you!!! -- ArglebargleIV (talk) 14:17, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

American Pool Checkers vs Pool Checkers
There is a cosmetic, yet a significant, difference between the proper Pool Checkers and its American version.

Pool checkers, Russian checkers and the Brazilian checkers are three main Draughts variations where checkers jump back and king can jump long.

To unify they all use the same chess board notation, and white move first.

The American Pool was first developed by the Straight checkers players at the start of the 20th Century, they used their own numeric notation and Black side moving first. (see Hines book )