Checkers

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Problem Description

A basic game of checkers allowing human vs. human play by using the mouse to drag checkers to valid destination squares.
 

Background & Techniques

I recently needed a checkerboard to help implement a checkers game called "Fox and Hounds" as well as to help investigate a specific Knight's Tour problem.   With my usual optimism, I decided that having drawn the board and pieces and the ability to move them, that implementing a two-player version of American checkers would be a snap.     It would be except for rules about Kings and jumps that must be taken and multiple jumps and identifying when no moves are available, etc., etc.  But it's working now (I hope :>). 

In this implementation, a move is made by dragging a checker to a valid location. A text label above the board will indicate whose turn and whether a jump exists. Multiple jumps are made as a series of single jumps.

One late addition that was useful for debugging the program and might useful to players as well is an "Undo" function.  Pressing the keyboard U key at any time before the game is over will undo the latest move.  Pressing the key multiple times will undo moves in reverse order, backing up as far the initial position if desired. 
 

Here is a summary of the the rules for "American" or "Straight" Checkers as I understand them:

  1. Pieces move diagonally; up for black, down for red pieces in my board.
  2. Players alternate turns, Black moves first.
  3. Pieces are taken by "jumping", moving diagonally over an adjacent piece of the opposite color to an adjacent empty square. If the jumping piece has another jump available, the turn continues and that jump must be taken.
  4. If more than one jump is available at the start of a turn, any one of them may be taken.
  5. When  a checker reaches the opposite side of the board it become a "king" and may move or jump diagonally in any direction.
  6. The game is over when one side captures all of the pieces, or his opponent is trapped with no move available.

Non-programmers are welcome to read on, but may want to skip to the bottom of this page to download executable version of the program.

Notes for programmers

An earlier game board demo implemented the game of Reversi using three different techniques, but that game only required clicking an empty cell to make a move.  For Checkers we need to allow the player select a piece and drag it to another valid location.  I chose a TStringlControl for the board and TShape descendants (calle TPiece) to define the checkers.  Drag/drop exits allow the checkers to be moved and dropped on valid destination cells.    Here are some note which might be relevant if you plan to improve (or fix) the program.

bulletThe 24 checkers exist as an array of TPiece controls.  Each checker has properties defining its color, it's column and row location on the board,  it's current status (Normal, King, or Removed), and its current move status (CanMove, CanJump, or NoMove).
bulletThe board cells contain either the index of the piece it contains or a "-1" value to indicate that the cell is empty.
bulletHere are the methods used to manage moves during drag/drop operations:

 
bullet PieceStartDrag method is called when dragging starts.  It does nothing in this version of the progam, but cold be used to implement, for example, a checker image as the drag cursor instead of the default drag icons.
bulletBoardDragOver is called when the dragged piece is moving over the board.  It converts the mouse location to the board column and row and calls the ValidMove function to determine if the piece can be accepted here. 
bulletBoardDragDrop: If the checker is over a  valid landing cell, this method is called when the player releases the mouse button to end the drag.    It call s procedure MovePiece to actually move the checker.
 

bulletAnd some common routines which could be customized for other checker board games

 
bulletSetPieceLoc(n,c,r:integer): Sets the location of  piece n to column c and row r.  It is called when the Reset button is clicked and pieces are being restored to their home positions and from MovePiece wile a piece is being moved.
bulletMovePiece(n,c,r:integer):  This is a busy procedure with a number of tasks to perform. As it moves piece n to column c and row r. it first checks to see if the move was a jump
bullet If a jump, the jumped piece is marked as "removed", that cell is marked as empty, the score is updated and a check is made to see if all opponent's pieces have been captured.  If all of the opponents pieces have been taken, a "Congratulations" message is issued.  
bulletWhether a jump or normal move, the location of the checker is updated and the old cell is marked as empty. 
bulletIf the move landed the checker in the King row, it's status is updated.
bulletA call is made to the SetPossibleMoves procedure determine  the next move options.
bulletIf the current piece status is still "Canjump", the "Whoseturn" variable is not updated.  This will force the current player's turn to continue.  
bullet If the global Gameover variable is true, there is no move for your  opponent, and a 'Congratulations" message is given.
bulletIsvalidLoc(loc:TPoint): Returns true if point "Loc" is a valid location on the board. 
bulletIsNormalMove(n:integer; loc1,loc2:TPoint): A Boolean function that returns true if a valid non-jump move can be made by checker   n from loc1 to loc2. (Valid ==> adjacent, in an allowed diagonal direction, and empty.)
bulletIsJumpMove(n:integer; loc1,loc2:TPoint; var jumpedloc:TPoint): A Boolean function that returns true if a valid jump can be made by checker   n from loc1 to loc2. (Valid ==> 2 squares away in an allowed diagonal direction, intervening square occupied by opponent's piece, landing location is empty.)
bulletValidMove(from,too:TPoint): Boolean function called by BoardDragOver to decide whether or not the checker can be dropped here.   It is passed "from" and "too" column/row addresses  and calls IsValidLoc, IsNormalMove, and IsJumpMove to make the determination.  
bulletSetPossibleMoves;  Scans all pieces for the players whose turn it is and sets the MoveStatus  flag for each one.  It also sets global Boolean variables MustJump (a jump move exists for the current player) and GameOver (no move exists for  the current player)
 

Running/Exploring the Program 

bullet Download source
bullet Download  executable

Suggestions for Further Explorations

bullet Computer play?
bullet Define drag control to replace default drag/drop icons.
bullet Additional rule sets/board sizes  for other countries' rules.  Initial piece placement code needs to be generalized for board sizes other than 8x8.

 

 

Original Date: July 23, 2007

Modified: May 15, 2018

 

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