Verquere is an historical tables game. It was played by two players on a tables board of the same type as used in backgammon, but the direction and rules of play were quite different from that game.
Names
Verquere went under different names in different countries including verkeer in Dutch, Verkehren in German, revertier in French, förkeren in Swedish, forkering in Danish, forkæring in Norwegian and forkæringur in Icelandic.
History
Verquere was probably invented in the Netherlands, and the first written reference is from the end of the 14th century. During the 17th and the 18th century, the game was widely played and very popular in the Netherlands, Germany, and the Nordic countries. It was also known in Great Britain and France, although backgammon and trictrac, respectively, were more common there. During the 19th century, verquere lost in popularity and was eventually eclipsed by other games.
In Sweden and Iceland, verquere became so dominant that the generic terms for tables games—bräde and kotra, respectively—were used interchangeably as synonyms for verquere. The Icelandic variant of the game vanished during the end of the 19th century, and the term kotra in modern Icelandic is used for backgammon. The Swedish variant, on the other hand, maintained its popularity and evolved into the game that now is known as svenskt brädspel ("Swedish Tables"). Swedish championships are played annually at the Vasa museum in Stockholm.
Rules
The earliest accounts of the rules of verquere are from the beginning of the 18th century, in French, Swedish, and German publications. The first English account is in a book from 1721.
The equipment
Verquere is played on a rectangular tables board with twelve triangular fields, so called points, along each long side. Each group of six points forms a quarter. One player has fifteen black men and the other player fifteen white men. The players place all fifteen men on the far right point on the opposite side of the board. This point is called the player’s home. The main objective of the game is to move the men anticlockwise around the board and be the first to bear the men off.
Moving the men
The players take turns rolling two dice. A player who, for example, rolls five 5-3 moves one man five points forward and another three points forward. The player may also move the same man eight points forward, but the man must then make a touchdown on either the third or fifth point from the start. If a player cannot move a man for one or both dice, he must give up that part of the roll. If he can move either of the two numbers but not both, he must move the larger one.
If both dice show the same number, the player has rolled a double. Each die in a double counts twice, which means that the player must move four times for the number of eyes shown. If a player cannot move four times, he must move as many times as possible.
Hitting men
A single man on a point is called a blot. If a player has a blot and one of the opponent's men lands or makes a touchdown on that point, the blot is hit. The player must pick it up from the board—place it on the bar, in modern terminology—and re-enter it in his first quarter. The man is re-entered on the point in the player’s first quarter that has the same number as the number of eyes on the die. A player who, for example, rolls 4-2 may re-enter a man on either the fourth or second point. A player may not move any other man on the board as long as he has one or more men on the bar that must be re-entered. If a man is re-entered on a point where the opponent has a blot, the blot is hit and must be re-entered by the opponent.
Closed points
Two or more men form a closed point, which under normal circumstances is protected. A closed point is called "ein Band" in German and "ett band" in Swedish, which both mean a band or a string in English. The French term is "une case", which means a hut or a box in English. A player may not land, make a touchdown, or re-enter a man on a point that is closed by the opponent.
On the opposite side of the board, the players may only close the point on the far left. That point is called the player's head. On their own side of the board, the players may close any point.
Jean and Juncker
A player may not re-enter men on points where he has men of his own or points that are closed by the opponent. If the number of men on the bar and the number of points that are occupied by the player’s own men exceed six, the player can never re-enter all his men. The player has become Jean and loses a double game. The English text says that the player has become John.