The point of the game
You win by capturing all your opponent’s pieces, or by shutting them in so they have no move at all. Players move in turn; white starts.
The board and the setup
The board is 8×8, but play happens only on the dark squares — 32 of them. Each side has 12 pieces on the three nearest rows. The board is placed so that a dark square sits at the bottom left.
How pieces move
A plain piece steps one square diagonally forward, onto a free dark square. It never steps back, and it never hops over an occupied square — not even its own.
How capturing works
If an enemy piece stands next to yours on a diagonal and the square right behind it is free, you jump over and take it off the board. A capture moves one square past the piece taken.
Capturing is compulsory
If a capture is available, no other move is legal. When several captures exist, Russian draughts lets you pick any — there is no majority rule, unlike the international game. This is not a nuisance but the main working tool: almost every combination is built on the fact that the opponent has to take.
The capture continues
Having landed, the piece looks for another enemy with a free square behind it. If there is one, it captures again, and so on. All of it counts as a single move, and the captured pieces come off at the end.
Plain pieces capture backwards too
A plain piece cannot move backwards, but it can capture in any direction. Even adults do not expect this, and it is what catches people out most often.
The king
A piece that reaches the far row becomes a king. A king moves and captures along a diagonal any distance, forwards and back, and may stop on any free square beyond the piece it took. If a plain piece reaches the far row mid-capture and can carry on, it continues as a king.
How a game ends
A game ends in one of three ways.
- A win: the opponent has no pieces left, or has no move — the shut-in side loses.
- A draw by agreement: both sides agree.
- A draw by counter: for example fifteen moves with kings only, no captures and no plain piece moving. The exact numbers come from the federation rules and are counted for you on our board.
How the five variants differ
The rules above are Russian draughts. The others differ in board size, in how strong the king is, and in whether you must take the larger number.
| Variant | Board | Pieces | Flying king | Plain captures back | Must take the most |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian | 8×8 | 12 | yes | yes | no |
| International | 10×10 | 20 | yes | yes | yes |
| Brazilian | 8×8 | 12 | yes | yes | yes |
| English | 8×8 | 12 | no | no | no |
| Giveaway | 8×8 | 12 | yes | yes | no |
Four ideas people win with
The rules are enough to play, but not enough to win. Here are four ideas that give an edge straight away — each checked by calculation on the board, not taken on trust.
- Do not move into a capture. Before every move, check whether the piece can be taken: this is the commonest loss among beginners.
- Do not drive a piece to the edge. A piece on the edge has exactly one move; a piece in the middle has two. The edge halves your choice.
- Use the compulsory capture. Give up one piece and you take away the opponent’s choice, forcing the move you need — and take two on the next one.
- Sacrifice for a king. One piece for a breakthrough is almost always a good trade: a king is worth several plain pieces.
