Draughts
Rules
How each code is actually played, written out in full.
The rules of {game}
The board
Most codes use a board of squares with the pieces confined to squares of one colour, so the whole game happens on the diagonals. The board is eight squares a side for the English, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian and pool codes, ten for international and Frisian, and twelve for Canadian.
Each player fills the rows nearest them, leaving two empty rows in the middle. The Turkish family is the exception to all of this: it uses every one of the sixty-four squares and moves orthogonally, which makes it look and feel like a different game entirely.
- 8x8 with dark squares: English, Russian, pool, Brazilian, Italian, Spanish.
- 10x10: international and Frisian, twenty pieces a side.
- 12x12: Canadian, thirty pieces a side.
- All 64 squares: Turkish, Armenian and Greek, sixteen pieces a side on the second and third ranks.
How ordinary pieces move
An uncrowned piece is called a man. It steps one square diagonally forward to an empty square. It never moves backwards, and in most codes it never steps sideways.
Capturing is different from moving. A man captures by jumping over an adjacent enemy piece and landing on the empty square directly beyond it. Whether it may jump backwards as well as forwards is the first thing that separates the codes: international, Russian and Brazilian men capture in all four directions, while English, Italian and Spanish men capture only forwards.
If the landing square is occupied, the jump is not available. A man cannot jump over two pieces standing side by side, and it cannot jump over its own piece at all.
Crowning, and what a king can do
A man that finishes its move on the far row is crowned and becomes a king. It is usually shown by stacking a second piece on it.
There are two kinds of king. A short king moves and captures exactly one square, like a man that can also go backwards. A flying king slides any distance along a clear diagonal, and captures at a distance: it takes the first enemy piece on the diagonal and lands on any empty square beyond it, choosing which one, which often matters because that choice decides whether it can carry on capturing.
English and Italian kings are short. International, Russian, Spanish, Brazilian, Canadian, Frisian and pool kings fly. Turkish kings fly too, but along ranks and files rather than diagonals.
Capture is compulsory
In every code on this site except the historic huffing variants, if a capture is available you must make it. You may not decline one in order to make a quieter move you prefer, and once you start a sequence you must play it to the end.
Where the codes disagree is what happens when more than one capture is available. English, Russian, Greek and pool let you take any of them, so long as you finish the one you start. International, Brazilian, Canadian, Spanish, Turkish and Frisian impose a majority rule: you must play the sequence that captures the most pieces. Italian goes further and applies a strict order of priority.
This is why the board on this site highlights every legal capture path when a capture is on. Working out which sequence the majority rule forces is genuinely hard, and getting it wrong is the most common way to lose a game you had won.
- Any capture, completed: English, Russian, pool, Greek.
- Most pieces: international, Brazilian, Canadian, Turkish.
- Most pieces, then most kings: Spanish.
- Most pieces, then a king must capture, then most kings, then the king met first: Italian.
- Most value, counting a king as one and a half men: Frisian.
Multiple jumps
A capture that lands on a square from which another capture is available continues, with the same piece, as part of the same move. A sequence of six or seven is not unusual on the larger boards, and the whole chain counts as a single turn.
Two details decide how these sequences actually play out. The first is when captured pieces come off the board. Most codes remove them only after the whole sequence is finished, which means they stay in place as obstacles and cannot be jumped a second time. The Turkish family removes each piece the moment it is jumped, which opens paths that would otherwise be blocked.
The second is what happens if a man reaches the crowning row in the middle of a sequence. In Russian and Turkish it is crowned at once and carries on as a king, often continuing in a direction a man could never have taken. In pool checkers, which is otherwise Russian, it does not: it stays a man for the rest of the move. In international it is not crowned at all unless the sequence ends there.
Winning and drawing
You win by taking all of your opponent's pieces, or by leaving them with no legal move. Being blocked is a loss, not a stalemate, which is why shutting a position down is a real strategy rather than a way to save half a point.
Draws are common in strong play, and each code has its own machinery for ending a game that is going nowhere. Threefold repetition of the same position with the same player to move is a draw everywhere. Beyond that, most codes count moves in which nothing irreversible happens: international draws after twenty-five moves each in which only kings have moved and nothing has been captured, Russian after fifteen, English and Italian after forty moves without a capture or a man being moved.
There are also endgame tables for positions that are theoretically won but tedious to prove. In international, three pieces including a king against a lone king must be finished within sixteen moves, and two pieces against a lone king within five. Russian gives a lone king five moves if it holds the long diagonal and fifteen if it does not.
Reading the notation
Most codes number the playable squares and write moves as numbers: 31-27 is a quiet move, and 27x18 is a capture. The numbering runs across the playable squares from the top left of the board as White sees it, so an eight-by-eight board runs 1 to 32, a ten-by-ten 1 to 50, and Canadian 1 to 72.
A multiple jump is written with every square the piece lands on, so 27x18x9 is a double. Russian and the Turkish family use algebraic square names instead, the way chess does, because those codes use the whole board or grew up alongside a different notation tradition.
Finished games can be exported as PDN, the standard portable format, which any serious draughts program will read.
{variant} — the rules
International draughts
The world game: ten by ten, twenty pieces each, flying kings, and you must always take the most.
- Men capture forwards and backwards, though they still only move forwards.
- Kings fly: any distance along a diagonal, capturing at a distance and landing where you choose beyond the piece taken.
- The majority rule applies. You must play the sequence that captures the most pieces; kings do not count extra, and ties are free choice.
- Captured pieces stay on the board until the sequence ends, so the same piece can never be jumped twice.
- A man is only crowned if its move ends on the far row. Passing through in the middle of a jump does nothing.
English draughts / American checkers
American checkers: eight by eight, short kings, Black opens, and any capture you like as long as you finish it.
- Black moves first, which surprises everyone arriving from another code.
- Men capture forwards only. A man with an enemy piece behind it is safe from that piece.
- Kings move and capture one square at a time in all four diagonal directions. They do not fly.
- There is no majority rule. Any available capture may be chosen, but it must be played out in full.
- Crowning ends the move. A man that reaches the back row in the middle of a jump stops there, even if the new king could have carried on.
Russian draughts (Shashki)
Shashki: eight by eight with flying kings, no majority rule, and a man that is crowned mid-jump keeps going as a king.
- Men capture forwards and backwards; kings fly.
- Capture is compulsory but there is no majority rule. You may take whichever sequence you like.
- A man reaching the back row in the middle of a capture is crowned immediately and continues the same sequence as a king. This is the code's signature, and it produces sequences no other game allows.
- Squares are named algebraically rather than numbered.
Pool checkers
American pool checkers: Russian in almost every respect, except that crowning mid-jump does not promote you until the move ends.
- A man that passes through the back row during a capture stays a man and continues as a man. It is crowned only if the sequence actually ends there.
- Everything else follows the Russian code: flying kings, backward captures, compulsory capture with free choice of sequence.
Brazilian draughts
International rules played on the smaller eight-by-eight board.
- Every international rule applies: flying kings, backward captures, the majority rule, crowning only at the end of a move.
- Twelve pieces a side on an eight-by-eight board, so the game is sharper and shorter than the ten-by-ten original.
- The draw limits are scaled down to suit the smaller board.
Italian draughts
The strictest code: mirrored board, short kings, men that cannot touch a king, and a four-step order of capture priority.
- The board is set the other way round, with the double corner on each player's left.
- Men capture forwards only, and a man may never capture a king. A king standing in front of a man is simply safe.
- Kings move and capture one square. They do not fly.
- When several captures are available the choice is forced, in this order: take the most pieces; if equal, capture with a king rather than a man; if still equal, take the most kings; if still equal, take the sequence that meets a king soonest.
- Crowning ends the move.
Spanish draughts (Damas)
Damas: the Italian board with flying kings and a two-step majority rule.
- The Italian orientation, with the double corner on the left.
- Kings fly, as in international.
- Men capture forwards only.
- The majority rule counts pieces first and then kings, so between two sequences that take the same number, you must take the one with more kings in it.
Turkish draughts (Dama)
Dama: all sixty-four squares, orthogonal movement, sixteen men a side, and pieces that vanish the instant they are jumped.
- Every square is in play. Men move one square forward or sideways and capture in those same three directions. Nothing moves diagonally.
- Kings slide any distance along a rank or file and capture at a distance, like a rook that jumps.
- Captured pieces are removed immediately during a sequence, not at the end, which opens up routes that would otherwise be blocked.
- The majority rule applies, and a sequence may not double back on itself.
- A man crowned in the middle of a capture continues at once as a king.
- A lone king against a lone man wins immediately rather than grinding it out.
Armenian draughts (Tama)
Tama: Turkish draughts, with the extra freedom for men to step diagonally forward.
- Men may step diagonally forward as well as forward and sideways, but they still capture only forwards and sideways.
- Everything else follows the Turkish code.
Greek draughts (Dama)
Turkish draughts with the majority rule switched off.
- Any available capture sequence may be chosen, though it must be completed.
- Everything else follows the Turkish code.
Frisian draughtsBeta
The hardest code here: international plus orthogonal captures, a king worth one and a half men, and a limit on how long one king may run.
- Pieces capture orthogonally as well as diagonally, which means a piece is threatened from eight directions rather than four.
- The majority rule counts value, not pieces: a king is worth one and a half men. Taking two men beats taking one king; taking a king beats taking one man.
- A king may not make more than three consecutive non-capturing moves while another piece of yours can move.
- Marked as beta on this site: the code is played to a detailed rule book and we are still widening the test coverage.
Canadian draughts
International rules on a twelve-by-twelve board with thirty pieces a side.
- The board is twelve squares a side and the squares are numbered 1 to 72.
- Every international rule applies, but the extra space makes the capture sequences longer and the endgames much richer.
Give-away draughts (Poddavki)
Poddavki: Russian rules, except the object is reversed. Lose all your pieces and you win.
- The player who first has no pieces, or no legal move, wins the game.
- Capture is still compulsory, which is the joke: you spend the game trying to force your opponent to take.
- Unrated, because it is a different skill and nobody wants their draughts rating decided by it.