Bobby Tapanen, age 10, of Missoula, Mont., for his question

WHEN WAS THE GAME OF CHECKERS INVENTED?

We don't know exactly who invented the game of checkers but we

do know that the ancient Egyptians played a similar game as early as 1600 B.C. There was also a form of checkers played in ancient Greece.

Through the centuries, varieties of the game of checkers came from the Chinese, the Polish, Spanish, Italian and Turkish centers of civilization.

An English variety of the game is called draughts.

Today checkers is played on a square checkered board that is divided into 64 equal square spaces colored alternately black and red or any two strongly contrasted colors. The checkers are circular, flat disks

Checkers is played by two players, each having a set of 12 checkers one black and the other white or red. The pieces may be placed either on the black or light squares. They are then moved forward and diagonallly only, one square at a time.

A checker may not move to a square occupied by the opponent, but may jump over the opponent's piece to a vacant square. The checker leaped over is "taken" and removed from the board.

Moving a checker to the opponent's last row turns it to a king. It may then move forward or backward.

If a player cannot move, he or she loses the game.