How to play draughts

Two players, twelve pieces each, and a board where only half the squares are ever used.

Players: 2
What you need: A board of 64 squares and 12 pieces a side
How long: A game takes five or ten minutes

What draughts is

Draughts is a game for two on a chequered board of sixty four squares. Most of the world calls it checkers. Each player has twelve pieces and they all start on the dark squares of the three rows nearest them.

A piece moves one square diagonally forward. It takes by jumping a neighbouring piece of the other colour into the empty square beyond, and the piece it jumped comes off the board.

You win by taking every piece the other side has, or by leaving them with nowhere to move. Both count as a win, and the second one happens more often than beginners expect.

The pieces only ever stand on the dark squares, so half the board is never touched.

The board

Eight squares by eight, in two colours, with a dark square in the corner nearest your left hand. Only the dark squares are used, which is why every move in the game is diagonal.

Twelve pieces a side fill the dark squares of the three rows nearest each player, and the two rows in the middle are left empty. Red moves first.

The opening position. Red moves first, up the board.

Setting up

Turn the board so that each player has a dark square in the corner on their left.
Put twelve pieces on the dark squares of the three rows nearest each player.
Red moves first. Here, the colour you pick on the game page is yours for the first game and the two of you swap after it.
Keep the pieces that come off the board where both of you can see them. The count is how a game is read.

Moving

On your turn you move one piece. An uncrowned piece is called a man, and a man steps one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square.

Forward means towards the other player. Red walks up the board and white walks down it, and neither may take a step back until it has been crowned.

That is the whole of moving. Everything else in this game is taking.

A man moves one square diagonally forward, and never backwards.

Taking

If a piece of the other colour is diagonally next to yours and the square directly beyond it is empty, you may jump over it. Your piece lands on that square and the piece you jumped is taken off the board.

A man only ever jumps forward, the same way it walks. A jump is not blocked by anything except what is standing on those two squares.

A double: the same piece jumps twice, and both takes are one turn.

If the piece you have just jumped with can jump again, it must, and the whole sequence is ONE turn. A piece can clear three or four in a row this way, which is the best thing that happens in this game.

And a take is compulsory. If you have a jump available anywhere on the board you have to make one, which means a player can be steered into giving a piece away. You can turn that off on the game page.

A jump: over a neighbour, into the empty square beyond, and the piece jumped comes off.

Kings

A man that reaches the far row is crowned and becomes a king. On a real board you take one of the captured pieces and put it on top, which is where the double disc comes from.

A king moves and jumps in all four directions instead of two. That makes it worth a good deal more than a man, and most games are decided by who gets the first one.

Crowning ends your turn, even in the middle of a sequence of jumps. A man that jumps into the far row is crowned and stops there, however much it could still have taken.

A king moves and jumps in every direction, which is worth about half a piece again.

How a game ends

You win by taking every piece the other side has. You also win by leaving them with no legal move, which is just as good and often easier: a side with pieces shut in behind their own has lost.

A game can be drawn. Two kings chasing each other round an empty board never finishes, so a long stretch with nothing taken and no man moved is called a draw, and so is the same position coming round three times.

Between two players who both know what they are doing, draughts draws often. That is not a fault in the game, and it is why a match here is several games rather than one.

Playing here

The rail above the board says whose turn it is. The rail below counts the pieces each of you has left, with a crown and a number beside it for the kings.

Tap a piece to pick it up and the squares it may go to are marked. Tap one of those to move, or tap the piece again to put it back. Dragging works too, and does the same thing in one gesture.

Mid-sequence the game picks the jumping piece up for you, because it is the only piece that may move. Where it has one jump left it simply plays it: a tap that can only be made one way is not a decision.

The piece that moved last is ringed and the square a piece was taken from is marked, so the other side’s turn can be read after it has happened.

Playing better

Count before you take. A take that is compulsory for you is a take your opponent chose to offer.
Keep your back row for as long as you can. It is the row the other side has to cross to be crowned.
Pieces on the edge cannot be jumped, because there is nothing behind them. They are also slow.
Trade pieces when you are ahead. Two against one is a much bigger lead than eight against seven.
The first king usually wins the endgame. Getting one is worth giving a piece up for.

Settings

Everything on the game page, before you press Play. All three house rules default to the game as it is written down.

Setting	Standard	What it changes
Mode	Play	Watch sets two bots against each other and starts a fresh game when one ends.
Your colour	Red	Red moves first. The colours swap after every game.
Difficulty	Medium	How far ahead the bot looks. Easy throws moves away on purpose.
Taking	A take must be made	The real rule, and the one that changes the game most. Turn it off and a player can no longer be steered into losing a piece.
Kings	One square at a time	The English king steps one square. Most of the rest of the world lets it slide the whole diagonal, which makes a king far stronger.
Men jump back	Off	A kitchen table rule. It lets an uncrowned man jump backwards, which quietly makes a man half a king.
Speed	Normal	How quickly the pieces move. It does not change how well the bot plays.

The words

Draughts: The British name. Checkers is the American one and they are the same game.
Man: An uncrowned piece. It moves and takes forwards only.
King: A crowned piece. It moves and takes in all four directions.
Crown: What happens to a man that reaches the far row. It ends the turn.
Jump: Going over a neighbouring piece into the empty square beyond, and taking it.
Double: Two jumps by one piece in one turn. Three is a triple, and so on.
Forced take: The rule that you must jump if you can. It is what lets a piece be offered as bait.
Shut in: Having pieces left and no legal move, which loses the game.
Long king: A king that slides the whole diagonal, as it does outside Britain and America.
Trade: Giving up a piece to take one back. The player who is ahead wants them.

Every rule on this page is the one the app plays by. Change any of them on the game's own page before you start.