The History of Alquerque-12. Remaining countries. Volume II.

The first Spanish books about the game of draughts have a very high standard and date from the XVI century, while the first French book comes from the XVII century and the game description is very basic. Contrarily to this evidence scholars did not consider it necessary to grant Spain the honour of being the country of creation of the game of draughts and of the new modality in chess with the new dama. Both the Alquerque-3 and the Alquerque-9 games were known in Roman times. The situation is completely different for the Alquerque-12 game. It is said that the Alquerque has its origin in Egypt. Perhaps this is the case for the Alquerque-3 and Alquerque-9 games, but never for Alquerque-12. Some authors claim that the Alquerque-12 game is a Greek or Roman game, but the great expert of these games, Dr. Ulrich Schädler, discards those theories. The first volume of the Alquerque-12 game unravels France and Spain. The second volume deals with the remaining countries of the world.

Govert Westerveld, (Monnickendam - Holland, 1947) was a former Dutch Youth Champion of Checkers (1963) and was one of the Official Chroniclers of Blanca (Murcia, Spain). He is Fellow of the Real Academia of Alfonso X the Wise at Murcia. He is Emeritus Hispanist by Cervantes Institute and Hispanist by the AIH and AHBx. He is one of the two Official Historians of the Federation Mondiale de Jeu de Dames (FMJD) and was a former Member of the Comité of Historians of the Spanish Chess Federation (FEDA). He has written more than 120 books.