Chess is regarded as the most strategic game among other abstract board games. The tactics and strategies involved in the game often makes it the favorite game among intellectuals.
The people who play chess tend to be doing well academically as well. There are other abstract board games as well, like Checkers and Backgammon.
Let us compare the three games chess, checkers, and backgammon. Each game is different in its own way and has its own strong points. Comparing checkers, chess and backgammon on different –
Comparison in terms of judging the difficulty level in learning the concept and rules: Checkers is an easy to learn game. The simple rule is – If you can’t move, you lose.
When it comes to learning the rules, backgammon is the next easiest game. Backgammon is played by two players with 15 checkers each on a board consisting of 24 spaces or points. The checkers are moved according to rolls of the dice.
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Each player tries to bring his own checkers home and bear them off before his opponent does, hitting and blocking the enemy checkers along the way. Understanding the whole concept of backgammon at once is a little difficult but still not that difficult as chess.
Chess is the most difficult one out of all these. The objective of the game of checkmate the king is easily understood but still, it is the most complex board game as it involves different movements, tactics, and strategies.
Comparison in terms of changes in number of pieces on board – In Checkers, Backgammon, and chess, the number of pieces on the board decreases and hence they all follow the concept of reduction.
Winner: Tie
Comparison on the basis of opening patterns and combinations – If we compare checkers, backgammon, and chess on the basis of opening patterns and combinations, then Checkers and Backgammon are simpler in that way as there are fewer opening lines to learn about.
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Chess, on the other hand, has largest possibilities of opening patterns and in the game of chess, one needs to be very careful while making the first moves as it is most of the times also the deciding factor.
Winner: Backgammon & Checkers snatches the victory here because they have fewer openings to learn.
Comparison on possible moves: In Backgammon & Checkers the choice set of moves is quite small.
In fact, there’s clearly one optimal move, or perhaps two that are nearly identical. So once you have learned the game properly, the game is limited and uninteresting.
Though backgammon is very fascinating game if played with doubling cube. But when it comes to chess things get dramatically changed, the options and strategies are far more diverse.
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Practically there are over 288 billion different possible positions after just four moves each.
Winner: Chess. There are over 288 billion different possible positions just after four moves each set it apart, and the fact that the longest game of chess is possible of 5,949 moves.
Comparisons on the basis of Strategy – No game can overpower Chess, when it comes to strategy and tactics.
Chess will always remain a strategically dominant game. Checkers require less strategical moves in comparison to Chess.
Backgammon also requires strategically planned moves, but due to use of dice the game is not purely a strategical game. Backgammon is the combination of luck & strategy.
Winner: Chess is the undisputed champ when it comes to the strategical board game.
Comparisons on the basis of popularity – Backgammon is a quite very popular game. People are sometimes not even aware of this board game. Checkers is a popular game in America but among Europeans, the game is not so popular.
Chess is the most popular board game all around the world. People love to play Chess and they grow so passionate about this game that they convert their hobby into the profession.
Winner: Chess, thanks to 605 million adults who play chess regularly
Verdict: In our comparison test American Checkers also known as Draughts is the last. Like backgammon, checkers is also combined with strategy and a little bit luck. But only one optimal move & no doubling cube option makes checkers to the last position.
Backgammon comes second. Backgammon is one of the oldest two-player board game combined with strategy and luck. It is probably about 5,000 years old game and originated in Iraq—previously Mesopotamia. But backgammon is not purely a strategical game unlike chess, it’s the combination of luck & strategy.
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The game is fascinating if played with doubling cube. Backgammon is also one of the most popular
board games in most casinos. Chess is the beast of the board & puzzle games. Chess is one of the oldest games that have intrigued mankind.
It is originated around 1500 years ago in India. According to the ChessBase report of 2012, there are approximately 605 million adults who play chess regularly – a number comparable to regular users of mighty Facebook.
There are ton of benefits of playing chess. Chess can be played by people of all age groups and mind sets. Chess is extremely helpful in brain development, it can sharpen your memory, makes you calculative, improves concentration and memory and the list goes on.
Chess will always continue to rule the world when it comes to Strategy board games.
Happy playing Chess!
2 Comments
simple game and interesting.
Fantastic article, thank you for sharing.