Draughts

Players and equipment

Two players and the same sixty-four-square board as chess, laid with a light square at each player's right hand. Twelve pieces each, played entirely on the dark squares. This brief is the English game on eight by eight; the international game uses a ten-by-ten board, twenty pieces each and a few rules of its own, so say which you are playing before the first move. SquareScores keeps the match table: each game is one match, a win is a tap on the winner's name, and a drawn game is a match closed with nobody tapped.

The deal

Each player fills the dark squares of the three ranks nearest them, which leaves the two middle ranks empty. Black moves first, and the table swaps colours for the next game. The two dark squares in your right-hand corner sit side by side: that is the double corner, and it matters later on.

Play

A piece moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. You take by hopping over a touching enemy piece to the empty square directly beyond it, and the piece you jumped comes off the board.

Move

One square diagonally forward, onto an empty square

Take

Hop over a touching enemy piece to the empty square beyond it, and lift it off

Crowned piece

Moves and takes one square diagonally, backwards as well as forwards

Captures chain. If the piece you have just landed with can hop again it must, and the whole chain counts as one move. You may not jump the same piece twice in a chain, and you may not jump one of your own.

In the English game a capture on offer is a capture you have to take, and a player who quietly declines one can be made to go back and take it. With a choice of captures you may take whichever you like, a single piece rather than a chain of three, but you must finish the chain you start. Agree before the first game whether you are playing it that way, because plenty of kitchen tables do not.

A piece that reaches the far rank is crowned, usually with a captured piece set on top of it. A crowned piece moves and takes diagonally backwards as well as forwards, and the move that crowns it stops there, even if the new king could hop on.

Scoring

There is no running score to keep here. A game is won or it is not, so tap the winner when it ends. A drawn game is closed with nobody tapped and shows as a game played that nobody won. Over a series the standing is simply games won.

A worked match

Alice and Ben play five games and record each on the match table as it ends.

Game 1

Ben

Ben forces a two-for-one exchange in the middle and takes every piece Alice has left

Game 2

Alice

Alice keeps her back row and crowns first; Ben is left with two pieces that cannot move

Game 3

Nobody

Two kings each, going round in circles: the two agree a draw

Game 4

Ben

Ben wins three kings against one and runs the last king down

Game 5

Alice

Alice traps Ben's last piece against the edge with nothing to move

After game 1 Ben's name is tapped, the game files and the next row opens. Game 2 is Alice's, game 3 is closed with nobody tapped and stands as played and drawn, then Ben and Alice again. The table reads Ben 2, Alice 2, with the drawn game standing in the list under nobody's name, so the next game decides it. A mis-tap on the last game can be taken back until the next one has something in it.

Ending

You win by taking every one of your opponent's pieces, or by leaving them with no legal move — a player who cannot move has lost. A player may also resign.

Two players who know the game often end agreed drawn, and a board down to a few kings with nothing happening should be called rather than shuffled about. End the match without tapping anybody and it stands as a game played that nobody won.

Keep your back row

The four pieces on your back rank are the wall your opponent has to pass to get a king, and a king is worth about two ordinary pieces. Leave your back row where it is for as long as you can, bring the pieces from the second and third ranks forward first, and make your opponent break their back row before you break yours. When you do move one, move the piece guarding your double corner last: that is the square a well-played enemy piece is heading for.

Hold the middle

A piece in the centre can move to two squares and threaten in two directions; a piece on the edge can move only one way and is easily hemmed in. Fight for the middle squares early, and once you hold them, bring pieces up behind in pairs so that anything that hops the front piece is taken back at once.

Count before you swap

When you are a piece ahead, swap: every one-for-one exchange makes your extra piece matter more, and three against two is far easier to win than twelve against eleven. When you are behind, avoid swaps and keep the board crowded, where a slip can still give you a shot.

Use the forced capture

The rule that you must take is the strongest weapon in the game. Because your opponent has to jump a piece you leave in their path, you can pull one of their pieces onto a square of your choosing and take two back, which is the two-for-one that decides most games between beginners. Before you move a piece forward, look at where it can be jumped from and where the jumping piece will land; if that landing square lets you hop twice, you have set a trap.

Kings and the endgame

Two kings against one is a draw if the single king can reach the double corner, where it shuttles between two safe squares and can never be caught; three kings against one is a win, though it takes patience to drive the lone king out of that corner. So when you are behind, run for the double corner, and when you are ahead, get your third king before the chase begins.

International draughts

Played on a ten-by-ten board with twenty pieces each on the four ranks nearest each player, and white moves first. Ordinary pieces take backwards as well as forwards, though they still move only forwards. A crowned piece is a flying king: it moves any distance along a diagonal and jumps a piece from any distance, landing on any empty square beyond it. With a choice of captures you must take the chain that removes the most pieces.

American checkers

The same game as this brief under its American name, with the pieces called checkers and the darker side, red or black, moving first. In tournament play the first three moves of each game are drawn by lot from a list of accepted openings, which keeps the strongest players out of the handful of lines they know to be safe.

Russian draughts

Eight by eight with twelve pieces each, and white moves first. Ordinary pieces take backwards as well as forwards, and kings fly the length of a diagonal as in the international game. A piece that reaches the far rank in the middle of a chain of captures is crowned there and then and carries on capturing as a king in the same move. There is no obligation to take the most pieces when you have a choice, only to take.

Turkish draughts

Also called dama. Sixteen pieces each fill the second and third ranks, the whole board is used, and the pieces move straight ahead or sideways, never diagonally. An ordinary piece takes forwards or sideways by hopping in a straight line, kings move and take any distance along a rank or a file, and you must take the chain that removes the most pieces.

Giveaway draughts

The English game turned round: the first player to lose all their pieces, or be left with no move, wins. The compulsory capture is what makes it work, because you can force your opponent to take your pieces whether they want to or not.

Do you have to take in draughts?

In the English game, yes. If you can jump an enemy piece you must, and if the piece you land with can jump again it must go on. Where you have a choice of captures you may pick any one of them, even the smaller, but the chain you begin has to be finished. Some families play that taking is optional; agree before the first game, because the two rules make very different games.

Can a king move backwards in draughts?

Yes. That is the whole point of being crowned. An ordinary piece moves and takes only forwards; a king moves and takes one square diagonally in any of the four directions. In the English game a king does not fly: it moves one square at a time, like an ordinary piece with the extra directions. Flying kings that travel any distance belong to the international and Russian games.

What is huffing in draughts?

The old penalty for not taking when you could. Your opponent would pick up the piece that should have made the capture, blow on it and remove it from the board — huff it — and the game went on with you a piece down. Modern rules replace huffing with a simple correction: the wrong move is taken back and the capture is made instead. Some tables still huff, so say which you play before the first move.

Who goes first in draughts?

In the English game the player with the dark pieces moves first, and the players swap colours for the next game so each has the first move in turn. In the international and Russian games white moves first. For a single game, toss for colours.

Can you take backwards in draughts?

Not with an ordinary piece in the English game: it takes only forwards, in the same two directions it moves. A king may take backwards. In the international and Russian games an ordinary piece may take backwards, though it still moves only forwards, which is the first thing to settle when two players learned in different countries.

What happens when you reach the other side in draughts?

Your piece is crowned, usually by setting a captured piece of your own colour on top of it, and becomes a king. It may move and take backwards from then on. The move that crowns it ends there, even if the new king could jump on at once; the king waits for your next turn.