The Origin of Checkers Checkers is the oldest game in the world and dates back over 4000 years. According to inscriptions in the temples of Thebes, the Egyptian kings took time out from building the Pyramids to mop up their courtiers at Checkers. In Homer's Odyssey, reference is made to games being played in the palace of Ulysses in Ithaca; also Plato makes frequent mention of the games in his writings. The earliest checker book was published by Antonio Torquemada, a Spanish author at Valencia, Spain, in the year 1547. Many famous people of the past were fond with the game of checkers, most notably George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allen Poe, Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Harry Houdini, Will Rogers, the famous baseball pitcher Christy Mathewson and the famous lexicographer Samuel Johnson considered the game superior to all educational pastimes.