How to play Russian Draughts

Flying kings, and a man crowned mid-capture jumps on as a king.

About Russian Draughts

Russian Draughts is played on an 8x8 board with 12 men each, and White moves first.

Men capture backwards as well as forwards, kings fly along the diagonals, and you may choose any capture.

A man that reaches the far row during a capture is crowned at once and goes on capturing as a king in the same move.

A game is drawn on a third repetition, after 15 moves each with only kings moving and nothing captured, and in several endgames after a fixed count, such as three kings against a lone king after 15 moves each.

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