Twelve stones a side on a lined 5×5 grid, slide along the lines, leap over your foe, and chain your jumps to clear the board.
Each player starts with twelve pieces on a five-by-five board laced with horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. On your turn move one piece a single step along any line into an empty point, or capture by jumping an adjacent enemy into the empty point beyond. Capturing is compulsory, and a single jump can continue into a chain. Take all the enemy pieces, or leave them with no legal move, to win.
Alquerque is an old line-and-capture game that spread through the medieval Islamic world and reached Spain with the Moors — the name itself comes from the Arabic al-qirkat. It is set down in the Libro de los juegos, the great book of games compiled for Alfonso X of Castile in 1283, which is also our best source for how several medieval games were actually played.
The board is a five-by-five grid of points with diagonals, so most positions have eight neighbours rather than four, and captures are made by the short jump familiar from draughts. That density is why it feels sharper than its size suggests: a piece is rarely safe simply because it is far away. Alquerque is a direct ancestor of draughts and checkers, which largely replaced it by moving the same idea onto a chequered board.
Alquerque is a medieval line-and-leap capture game widely regarded as an ancestor of draughts and checkers. This is an original, free browser version with three computer strengths, two-player hot-seat, and live online matches, no install needed.