Draughts Rules

We list the complete rules including, the players, the draughts board, Playing pieces, Simple rules, capturing, non-captuing moves and the crowning move in the game.


Players

Draughts is played by two, on the same board that is used for Chess, with pieces (called draughts) in the form of thick discs.  All the draughts are alike in form but are provided in two colours, the darker being used by the player “Black” and the lighter by “White”.


The Board

As in Chess, the board is placed so that each player has a light square in the corner at his right.  (See the diagram below).


Playing pieces

Each player has 12 pieces of his own colour.  To begin a game, the Black pieces occupy squares 1-12 and the White pieces occupy squares 21-32 as shown in the diagram above.  All the pieces move solely on the dark squares.  At the outset, all pieces are single men.  A single man may later become a king, as explained below.

 

Playing using the rules and regulations

Black moves first, and thereafter the players move alternately.  A player loses the game if he cannot move in turn; usually this is because all his pieces have been captured, but it can also come about because all his remaining pieces are immobilised.  Many games are drawn by agreement, when few pieces remain and neither player has an advantage sufficient to win.


The Noncapturing move

A single man may move only forward on the dark diagonal, one square at a time (when not capturing).


Capturing move

The capturing move is a jump.  If a White piece stands adjacent and forward to a Black piece, and if the square back of the White piece on the same line is vacant, the Black piece jumps over it to the vacant square, and then  the White piece is removed from the board.

If a draughts piece makes a capture, and then is on a square from which it can jump over another adverse piece, it continues jumping in the same turn.  It may change direction during a series of jumps.


It sometimes happens that a draughts playing piece may capture in either of two directions, or either of two pieces may make a capture.  In all such situations, the owner has a free choice.

Crowning

The row of squares farthest from the player is his king row.  On reaching the king row, a single man is crowned and becomes a king.  The opponent must immediately put on top of it another piece of the same colour, and the two draughts are then moved as a unit.

The king has the same powers as a single man, plus the right to move backward as well as forward.  Moves in both directions may be combined in one series of jumps.  But if a single man reaches the king row by a capture, it may not continue jumping in the same turn (as a new king); it must pause one turn to be crowned.