Lasca
Overview

Lasca (also known as Laska) is a two-player board game played on a square checkerboard that was invented by the second World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker in 1911.  Lasca is derived from English Draughts (American Checkers) and a Russian game, Bashni (Towers).

Board

Lasca is played on a 7x7 checkerboard.

The initial position of dark (red) and light (orange) checkers is shown in the following picture:

Objective
The goal of Lasca is to capture all of the opponent's checkers or to block them, leaving the opponent without any legal moves.

Play

Lasca has almost the same rules as English Checkers with the following differences:

  • According to Emanuel Lasker, White always starts the game.  (On igGameCenter, however, dark starts.)
  • When a single checker (or a king) is captured it's not removed from the board but is placed below the capturing checker (or a king) forming a stack.  If several checkers (or kings) are captured during the same move then they sequently placed below the capturing checker:

 

 
Before the capture   After the capture
  • A stack is controlled by the player who owns the topmost checker (or king).
  • A stack moves or captures other checkers or stacks according to the rules of English Checkers applying to the topmost checker (or king).
  • When a stack or a single checker captures an opponent's stack, just the topmost checker is taken from that stack and placed below the capturing stack or a checker.  The next checker or a king in the stack (beneath the captured topmost one) is considered to be "released" and can be used by its owner on the next move:
 
Before the capture  

After the capture

The topmost red checker was taken from a stack.  The orange checker beneath it was released.

  • An ordinary checker at the top of a stack can be promoted to a king exactly the same way as in English Checkers.

External Links