Draughts ancestor · 5x5 lattice
Alquerque
Medieval lattice game on 25 points: short leaps, mandatory majority captures, no kings. Quiet Parchment board.
Board: 5x5 lattice points
At a glance
Board
5x5 points with orthogonal links and even-parity diagonals. 12 men each; centre empty.
Men
Step one point along a marked line onto an empty neighbour. No promotion.
Captures
Short leap over an adjacent enemy onto the empty point beyond. Majority is mandatory.
On this page
1. Board and setup
Play on a 5x5 lattice of points. Every orthogonal neighbour is linked; diagonals exist only between even-parity points (row+col even), forming the classic Alquerque X pattern.
Each side starts with 12 men: the two nearest rows fully filled, plus the two points on its right of the middle row. The centre point is empty.
2. Movement
- A quiet move is one step along a marked line onto an empty point.
- There are no kings and no promotion.
3. Captures
- Capture by short leap over an orthogonally or diagonally adjacent enemy onto the empty point beyond, along the same marked line.
- Captured pieces are removed immediately.
- Multi-jumps continue as long as further captures exist from the landing point.
- If any capture exists it is mandatory; among captures only the longest sequences are legal (majority).
- When several lines share that maximum length, you may choose any of them.
4. Winning
- Win by capturing all opponent pieces or leaving them with no legal move.
- Draws can arise from mutual exhaustion or blocked positions.