How to play International Draughts

A 10x10 board with flying kings, where you must take the most pieces.

About International Draughts

International Draughts is played on a 10x10 board with 20 men each, and White moves first.

Men capture backwards as well as forwards, and kings fly along the diagonals.

You must take the capture that takes the most pieces, kings and men counting the same. A man that passes over the far row during a capture stays a man unless its move ends there.

A game is drawn on a third repetition, or after 25 moves each in which only kings have moved and nothing has been captured. Three pieces with a king against a lone king are drawn after 16 moves each, or 5 if the lone king holds the long diagonal, and two pieces or fewer with a king against a lone king after 5.

The goal of Checkers

Checkers is played by two players, Black and White, each with a set of men on the dark squares of the board, and here you play against a computer player. Capture your opponent's pieces by jumping over them, and win by leaving your opponent with no legal move, either because every piece is gone or because the ones left are blocked.

How to set up Checkers

Checkers, Russian Draughts and Brazilian Draughts are played on an 8x8 board with 12 men each, on the dark squares of the three rows nearest each player. International Draughts is played on a 10x10 board with 20 men each, on the four nearest rows. Each player has a dark square in the near left corner.

The colours are drawn by lot at the start of each game. In Checkers Black moves first, and in the three draughts games White moves first.

Checkers rules

A man moves one square diagonally forwards to an empty dark square. A man that ends its move on the far row is crowned and becomes a king.

A capture jumps diagonally over an enemy piece to an empty square beyond it, and the jumped piece is taken off. Capturing is compulsory: if you can capture, you must, and a capture that can go on with another jump must go on until no jump is left.

Captured pieces come off the board only when the move ends, and no piece can be jumped twice in one move, so a piece already jumped still blocks the way.

In Checkers a man captures only forwards, and a king moves and captures one square at a time in any diagonal direction. In the three draughts games men capture backwards as well as forwards, and a king flies: it moves any distance along a free diagonal and can capture a piece at any distance, landing on any empty square beyond it. If one of those squares lets it capture again, it must land on one that does.

When several captures are possible, Checkers and Russian Draughts let you choose any of them. International and Brazilian Draughts make you take the capture that takes the most pieces, with a king counting as one piece, like a man.

The full Checkers guide, with strategy tips and common questions