Checkers
Ten squares by ten, twenty pieces, and you must capture.
Checkers is played by default with the international draughts rules used in France: a 100-square board and 20 pieces each. The rules fit in a few lines, but compulsory capture creates surprisingly deep combinations. Three variants on 64 squares are also available.
- Players
- 2
- Game length
- about 20 min
Rules
Objective
Capture or block all of your opponent's pieces. A player who cannot move loses.
The board
The board is 10 squares by 10. Only the dark squares are used. Each player sets up 20 pieces on their first four rows. White moves first.
Moving and capturing
A piece moves one square diagonally forward. It captures by jumping over an adjacent enemy piece onto the empty square just beyond. A piece may capture forwards and backwards.
Capturing is compulsory. If several captures are possible, you must choose the one that takes the most pieces. Captured pieces are only removed once the whole sequence is finished.
The king
A piece that ends its move on the far row becomes a king. A king moves any number of squares diagonally, and can capture from a distance, landing on any empty square beyond the captured piece.
Draws
The game is drawn if the same position occurs three times, or after 25 king moves each without a capture or a move by an ordinary piece.
Variants
The table host picks the variant. Brazilian draughts uses the international rules on a 64-square board, with 12 pieces each.
In Russian draughts (64 squares), you may choose any capture sequence rather than the longest, and a piece that reaches the far row in the middle of a sequence carries on at once as a king.
In English checkers (64 squares), ordinary pieces only capture forwards, a king moves a single square at a time, and you may choose any capture.