How to play Draughts

1 player vs computer, or 2 online

Take all of your opponent's pieces, or leave them with no legal move. Play is on the dark squares only.

The rules, step by step

1. 1

   Each side starts with twelve men on the dark squares of the three rows nearest them. White moves first.

2. 2

   A man moves one square diagonally forward to an empty square. Men never move backwards.

3. 3

   To capture, jump over an adjacent enemy piece to the empty square directly beyond it. The piece you jumped is removed.

4. 4

   Capturing is compulsory. If a jump is available, you must play a jump — though if there is more than one, you may choose which.

5. 5

   If the piece you just jumped with can jump again, it must, and again after that. One turn, several pieces taken.

6. 6

   A man reaching the far row becomes a king and may move and jump in both directions. Crowning ends your turn, even in the middle of a run of jumps.

7. 7

   You lose if you have no pieces left, or no legal move at all. Forty turns each with nothing taken and nothing crowned is a draw.

Three tips that change how you play

• Hold your back row as long as you can. Those four squares are where an enemy man has to land to be crowned, and a king is worth nearly two men. Good players look slow and passive early on for exactly this reason.
• Use the compulsory capture as a weapon. Offer a piece where taking it forces their piece onto a square you can jump from — and where the jump you get back takes two. Every serious trap in this game is built out of a capture your opponent was not allowed to refuse.
• Keep to the middle. A piece on the side rail can never be jumped, which sounds like safety and is mostly a piece taken out of the game: it attacks half as many squares and has half as many moves.

The two-for-one

You have a man that can step forward onto a square where the opponent can jump it. It looks like giving a piece away, and against the compulsory capture rule it is not a suggestion — they have to take it. Their piece lands two squares on, and that landing square is the one you were interested in the whole time: from there it is sitting directly in front of a man of yours, with an empty square behind it, and the piece beside it is now unsupported as well. You jump, and the piece you land on lets you jump again in the same turn. One man given, two taken, and it happened because they had no choice about the first move. That is the shape of nearly every combination in draughts. Learning to see the position two moves after the sacrifice, rather than one, is most of what separates a player who trades pieces from a player who wins them.

Three mistakes that cost beginners the game

Taking the capture that is offered without asking why.

You have to take one, but often you have a choice of which. Before you jump, look at what the board is like afterwards — where their pieces will be able to jump from, and whether a piece of yours is about to be cut off. Half of all draughts traps are a free piece with two of yours behind it.

Pushing men forward to get a king.

A man running for the back row alone is a man you will lose. Advance in pairs so each piece covers the square behind the other, and break your own back row only when you have to. A king is worth having; a king bought with two men is not.

Trading pieces evenly when you are behind.

Trading helps whoever is ahead, because it makes the advantage a bigger share of what is left. A piece down with eight pieces each is awkward; a piece down with three each is lost. When you are behind, keep the board complicated and look for a two-for-one.

Common questions about Draughts