The Story
Where it came from, and why it turned out this way.
Origin12th-century France; the 10×10 international game took shape in 18th-century Paris
Two older games bolted together
Draughts was assembled rather than invented. Medieval Europe already had alquerque, a diagonal capturing game whose rules resemble modern draughts but which was played on a lined grid. Around the 12th century someone in France transplanted alquerque's movement onto the 8×8 chessboard, using only the dark squares, producing the game called fierges. The idea of a piece being crowned appeared in the same period, reportedly from the image of a piece reaching the far rank and receiving a crown.
Compulsory capture exists to keep the game sharp
Mandatory capture is almost unheard of elsewhere. Its effect is not merely faster play — it converts choice itself into a weapon. Since your opponent must capture, you can predict exactly which square they will land on, and design combinations that give up one piece to jump back and take three. Nearly all draughts tactics rest on this one rule; without compulsory capture, the sacrifice combination simply does not exist.
The 10×10 and 8×8 split
18th-century Paris produced an enlarged 10×10 version in which men capture backward, kings slide any distance along a diagonal as flying kings, and you must take the line that captures the most pieces. Those changes raised the tactical depth by an order of magnitude, and that game is today's international draughts. The 8×8 version kept in Britain and America went the other way — short kings, forward-only captures, free choice among capture lines — making a faster game that leans more on tempo calculation.
The first complex game to be fully cracked
In 1994 Jonathan Schaeffer's program Chinook contested the world championship against Marion Tinsley, the legendary figure of English draughts. Tinsley withdrew mid-match for health reasons and died shortly afterward, leaving one of the great unfinished duels in games history. In 2007 Schaeffer's team announced that 8×8 checkers had been weakly solved: with best play from both sides it is a draw. At the time it was the most complex game ever solved.
- The word king traces straight back to that crowning image: in the physical game you promote by stacking a second piece on top of the first.
- Marion Tinsley is widely regarded as the most dominant player in the history of any board game — across more than forty years as a professional, his losses in formal competition can be counted on your fingers.
- International rules include a whole apparatus of endgame clocks, such as the 5-move and 16-move limits for a lone king against several pieces, existing for exactly the same reason as makruk's counting: so that drawn positions can terminate.
Complete Rules
Start with what a turn allows and how the game is won.
- Board
- 10 × 10 or 8 × 8
- Shared rule
- Captures are mandatory
- Winning conditioncapture all of your opponent's pieces, or leave them with no legal move because every piece is blocked. Note that blocking counts as a win — restricting your opponent's mobility in the endgame is just as effective as capturing material.
- Both rulesets use the dark squares only. A normal move steps one square diagonally forward; a capture jumps over an adjacent enemy piece onto the empty square directly beyond it, and if another jump is available after landing you must keep jumping — you may never stop partway.
- International rules on 10×10: twenty pieces per side, White (the bottom) moves first. Men move only forward but capture both forward and backward. Kings are flying kings that slide any distance diagonally, and when capturing they may jump an enemy piece from a distance and land on any empty square along the diagonal beyond it.
- English/American rules on 8×8: twelve pieces per side, Red (the bottom) moves first. Men move and capture forward only. Kings are short kings that move in all four diagonal directions but still only one square at a time and only jump adjacent pieces. Captures are mandatory, but when several complete capture lines exist you may pick any of them — there is no requirement to capture the most.
- The International mandatory capture is the maximum capture: only the complete lines that take the greatest number of pieces are legal. Among lines of equal count you may choose freely, with no distinction between capturing men or kings and no distinction between capturing with a man or a king.
- Pieces jumped during a multi-capture are removed only after the whole move is finished. Consequently the same enemy piece may not be jumped twice, and a piece that has already been jumped but is still on the board keeps blocking — you cannot land on it either.
- Promotion timing is the single most important difference between the rulesets. In English/American, a man that steps onto the far rank during a multi-capture promotes immediately and its turn ends, so a freshly crowned king cannot continue capturing. In International, a man passing through the far rank mid-capture does not promote, and it is crowned only if the complete move ends exactly on that rank.
Your First Game
Use this order of thought to get through a complete game quickly.
- The page opens in 10×10 International rules by default; the rules dropdown on the right switches to 8×8 English/American. Switching starts a new game immediately, changing both the starting piece count and the entire movement logic.
- To play a multi-capture, click your piece and then click each landing square in sequence — the board highlights the squares your next jump can reach. The move counts as complete only when you reach the end of the chain.
- When it becomes your turn, read the status bar above the board first. If it shows that a capture is mandatory, this move must be a capture, and there are usually only one or two legal pieces to start from.
- Do not push single pieces forward alone. Keep your pieces paired side by side along diagonals so they defend each other and any jump onto them is immediately recaptured. Do not empty your own back rank too early either — it blocks your opponent's promotion and is a source of viable moves in the endgame.
- Count who is closer to promotion before every trade. In International rules a single flying king is often worth three or four men; the short king in English/American is worth far less, so you can trade more freely there.
- Run a jump-back check before every move: after I play this, does my opponent have a piece that can jump the piece I just moved? The overwhelming majority of lost material in draughts is not the result of deep tactics — it is walking into a jump that was already available.
- Mandatory capture cuts both ways, because it binds your opponent too. Deliberately offering a piece to force a capture, and thereby dragging your opponent's pieces onto the squares you want them on, is the most basic and most effective tool in the game.
Practical Strategy
Move from knowing the rules to playing with a plan.
- The most common tactic is the sacrifice combination: deliberately let your opponent jump onto a specific square, giving up one piece, and then jump back with another piece to take two or even three.
- The International maximum-capture rule can be used against your opponent: set up a long capture chain that forces their flying king away from the area it was guarding, or forces them to land on exactly the square you have already calculated.
- Flying kings want the long diagonals and the center, while also watching the routes your opponent's men take toward promotion. The short king in English/American has limited mobility, so position matters more than count — controlling the center and the double-corner side is often worth more than an extra capture.
- In the endgame, calculate tempo — who is forced to move first — before counting material. An extra piece does not guarantee a win, and International rules impose explicit move limits in reduced-material endings, so failing to win inside the limit is a draw.
- Keeping your formation intact matters more than pushing forward. A hole in your structure — a missing piece on one of your own diagonals — lets an enemy piece settle in safely where you cannot jump it. Before attacking, confirm you are not leaving that kind of gap behind you.
- Treat blocking as a genuine winning method to play for. If your opponent has more pieces but every one of them is jammed against an edge or corner, you win outright as long as you always have a move available yourself — this is especially common on the double-corner side under English/American rules.
Winning and Special Rules
Details that are easy to miss but can change the result.
- A player who loses all pieces, or who has no legal move on their turn, loses the game. The third occurrence of the same position is a draw.
- A run of consecutive moves in which only kings move, with no captures and no man moves, is drawn at the limit: 80 half-moves under English/American rules (40 per side) and 50 half-moves under International rules (25 per side). Any capture or man move resets that counter to zero.
- International rules add the FMJD reduced-material endgame limits: when a player has only one king left, they must win within 5 moves if the opponent has 1 king, 2 kings, or 1 king and 1 man, and within 16 moves if the opponent has 3 kings, 2 kings and 1 man, or 1 king and 2 men — but if that lone king moves onto a long diagonal at any point, the remaining limit drops immediately to 5 moves. Reaching the limit is a draw.
- Notation uses the standard international dark-square numbering: an ordinary move is written 32–28 and a capture 32×23.
Common Mistakes
The traps new players fall into most often.
- Playing the first capture you see. Under International rules, if it is not one of the maximum-capture lines the interface will not even let you complete it — count all the lines first.
- Playing International with English/American instincts. International men capture backward, so a piece you assumed was safe behind your lines can be jumped from behind at any moment.
- Assuming an International flying king must land on the first square behind the piece it captured. It may stop on any empty square further along that diagonal, and different landing squares open completely different follow-up jumps.
- Expecting to keep capturing after promoting mid-chain under English/American rules. The moment the man steps onto the far rank, the turn is over.