How to Play Int'l Draughts

International Draughts is played on a 10x10 board using only the dark squares. Each player starts with 20 pieces.

Black occupies the dark squares on rows 1-4 (top of the board). White occupies the dark squares on rows 7-10 (bottom).

White moves first. Pieces move and capture diagonally on dark squares only.

Regular pieces (men) move diagonally forward one square to an empty dark square.

White moves toward the top of the board (decreasing row numbers). Black moves toward the bottom.

Men cannot move backward -- only forward diagonally. They have two possible moves each turn: forward-left or forward-right.

To capture, a man jumps diagonally over an adjacent opponent piece and lands on the empty square directly beyond it. The captured piece is removed.

Unlike regular moves, men can capture both forward AND backward.

Capturing is MANDATORY. If you can capture, you must. You cannot choose a non-capturing move when a capture is available.

If a piece lands from a capture and can immediately capture another opponent piece, it must continue capturing.

Multiple pieces can be captured in a single turn through a chain of jumps. You cannot stop mid-chain if another capture is available.

Each opponent piece can only be jumped once per chain. Captured pieces are removed after the entire chain is complete.

When multiple capture sequences are available, you must choose the one that captures the MOST pieces.

This is a key difference from English Draughts. You cannot choose a shorter capture when a longer one exists.

If two sequences capture the same number of pieces, you may choose either one.

In this position, White has two captures available but must take the chain that captures 2 pieces instead of the one that captures only 1.

When a man reaches the far end of the board (the opponent's back row), it is promoted to a King.

White men are promoted on row 1 (top edge). Black men are promoted on row 10 (bottom edge).

In this position, the white man is one move away from the top row and will be promoted to a King on the next move.

Kings in International Draughts are "flying kings" -- they can move any number of squares along a diagonal, like a bishop in chess.

This is a major difference from English Draughts, where kings move only one square at a time.

For capturing, a flying king can jump over an opponent piece from any distance, and land on any empty square beyond it along the same diagonal. This makes kings extremely powerful.

The game is drawn when 25 consecutive moves have been made by each side (50 half-moves total) without any capture.

This prevents indefinite games where neither player can force a win. The counter resets to zero after any capture.

A player also loses if they have no legal moves on their turn (all pieces captured or blocked).