Book excerpt: Scholars did not consider it necessary to grant Spain the honour of being the creative country of the game of draughts and of the new modality in the chess game with the new dama. Both the alquerque-3 as the alquerque-9 games were known in Roman times. Completely different is the situation 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 game. Some authors claim that the alquerque-12 game is a Greek or Roman game, but the great expert of these games, Dr. Ulrich Schadler, discards it. This book is the first proof that the alquerque-12 game was not popular at all in France, but much more in Spain, where the new chess game and draughts game were invented.