International Draughts Rules - How to Play
Learn the 10×10 championship game by separating ordinary movement from the compulsory capture calculation.
Board, pieces, and the aim
International Draughts, often called Polish draughts, uses only the dark squares of a 10×10 board. Each player begins with twenty men: White occupies the first four rows at one end and Black the four rows at the other. Black moves first on this board. A player wins by leaving the opponent without a legal move, usually by capturing every opposing piece or blocking its remaining pieces. This is not English checkers enlarged by two files: the larger starting army, backward captures, long-range kings, and compulsory choice of the largest capture make the geometry and planning substantially different.
Quiet moves and ordinary men
When no capture exists anywhere for your side, a man moves one square diagonally forward to an empty dark square. Black men advance toward row zero and White men toward row nine in the engine. Men do not make ordinary backward moves, so a piece near its own side can become cramped if its forward diagonals close. Capturing is broader than moving: a man may jump an adjacent enemy in any of the four diagonal directions, including backward, if the square immediately beyond is empty. The jumped piece is marked for removal, and the same man may have to continue jumping.
Captures are compulsory and maximum
If any capture is available, a quiet move is illegal. More importantly, International Draughts does not let you select merely any capture. First count the number of opposing pieces in every complete capture sequence; only sequences with the largest count are legal. If two longest lines capture the same number of pieces, the engine keeps the line that captures more kings. This rule applies across the whole board, not only among jumps made by the piece you first noticed. Before moving, scan every man and king, trace every forced continuation, and count to the final landing. A seemingly safe short jump can be unavailable because another piece has a longer route.
Flying kings and multi-jump timing
A man that finishes its turn on the far back rank becomes a king. A king is a flying king: on a non-capturing turn it may slide across any number of empty squares on one diagonal. To capture, it travels along a diagonal to the first enemy piece, then may land on any empty square beyond that piece on the same diagonal. The chosen landing changes the next capture options, so it is part of the decision rather than decoration. Captures can turn between diagonal directions. Pieces already jumped remain on the board until the entire sequence ends and cannot be jumped again in that sequence; they can still block a line while you calculate the rest.
Promotion, endings, and what this board enforces
Promotion happens only after a complete turn. If a man reaches the promotion row during a capture but still has a legal continuation, it continues as a man; it does not turn into a flying king halfway through the sequence. At the end, it promotes only if it remains on that last row. The live board enforces this timing, maximum-capture selection, the king-capture tie-break, and every required continuation. It offers four AI levels, local play on one device, and online friend rooms. Use legal highlights as a check after doing the count yourself, rather than as a substitute for learning why another attractive jump disappeared.
International Draughts rules FAQ
- How many pieces does each player start with?
- Each player starts with twenty men on the dark squares of four rows of a 10×10 board.
- Can a man capture backward?
- Yes. Men move forward when not capturing, but they may capture an adjacent enemy in all four diagonal directions.
- Do I have to take the longest capture?
- Yes. A legal capture sequence must take the greatest possible number of pieces; equal-length sequences prefer one that takes more kings.
- Can a king land anywhere after jumping an enemy?
- A flying king may land on any empty square beyond the first jumped enemy on that diagonal, then continue if another legal capture exists.
- Does a man crown in the middle of a capture?
- No. A man promotes only after its whole turn ends on the far back rank, so it remains a man through any continuing jumps.
Practice the rules on the board
Open a game and, before selecting a piece, list every capture on the board. Compare their full lengths, then deliberately trace a king landing that changes the next jump.