International Draughts

What is International Draughts?

International draughts is draughts on the big board: ten squares by ten, twenty men a side. It is the game the Netherlands, France, Belgium, much of Africa and Eastern Europe mean when they say draughts, and the one the world federation, the FMJD, holds its world championships in. Next to the eight by eight game of English checkers it has three big differences: men capture backwards as well as forwards, kings fly along the diagonals, and when you can capture you must take the most pieces you can.

Here you play the white pieces against the computer at three strengths, and every day brings a Daily game against the same computer for everyone.

How to play

• The board. Ten by ten, played on the fifty dark squares only, with a dark square in each player's left corner. Your twenty white men start on the four rows nearest you, the computer's twenty black men on the four rows opposite. White moves first.
• Moving. Tap one of your men and the squares it can end on light up; tap one and it goes there. A man steps one square diagonally forward.
• Capturing. A man takes an enemy piece on a neighbouring square by jumping over it to the empty square just beyond, forwards or backwards. If it can jump again from where it lands, it must, in the same move.
• Capturing is compulsory. When you can take, you must. While a capture is waiting, only the pieces that can make it are ringed, and the route each capture takes is drawn across the board.
• The majority rule. Of all the captures on the board, you must make one that takes the most pieces. A king and a man count the same.
• Pieces come off at the end. The pieces you jump stay on the board, marked, until the whole capture is over, then fade away together. No piece can be jumped twice, and one already jumped blocks the way.
• Kings. A man that ends its move on the far row is crowned and gets a gold crown. A man that only touches the far row in the middle of a capture and has to jump on stays a man. A king moves any distance along a diagonal and captures from afar: it may take an enemy piece anywhere along a diagonal with only empty squares before it, and land on any empty square beyond it.
• Choosing a route. When two captures that take the most pieces end on the same square, tap a square the piece lands on along the way to choose between them.
• Winning. You win when the computer has no piece left or none of its pieces can move.
• Draws. The game is drawn when the same position comes up three times with the same side to move, after 25 moves each in which only kings moved and nothing was taken, and in the king endings the rules count: a lone king against three pieces with a king among them holds the draw after 16 moves each, against two pieces or one after 5. A game that reaches 120 moves each is also a draw, so that every game stays short enough to check.
• Score. A win scores 100 plus 4 points for each of your pieces still on the board. A draw scores 50, a loss 2 for each of the computer's pieces you took.

Strategy tips

1. Hold the centre. Men on the middle squares (22, 23, 24, 27, 28 and 29 in draughts notation) cramp the other side and support each other. Edge men move only one way and are the easiest to block.
2. Keep your back row for a while. The men on squares 47, 48 and 49 stop the computer's men from breaking through to crown. Move them late, once the board has emptied.
3. Count before you exchange. Because you must always take the most, you can force the computer into a capture it does not want: give one man so that its compulsory capture lands one of its pieces where you can take two. That is the "shot" every draughts player hunts for.
4. Watch both wings. A side whose men are all on one flank is easy to break through on the other. Move evenly.
5. Get a king, then a strong one. A king is worth about three men. Once you have one, put it on the long diagonal (from square 46 to square 5), where it is hardest to trap.
6. Know the endings. Three kings against one lone king is usually only a draw in international draughts, which is why the rules stop that ending after 16 moves each. To win, keep men on the board and win material before it comes to that.

FAQ

Is International Draughts free to play?

Yes. Like every game on Play, it runs free in your browser, with no download and no account needed.

How is it different from checkers?

English checkers is played on an eight by eight board with twelve men a side; its men capture only forwards and its kings move one square at a time. International draughts uses a ten by ten board and twenty men, men capture backwards too, kings fly along the diagonals, and you must make the capture that takes the most pieces.

Why can I not move the piece I tapped?

A capture is waiting somewhere on the board, and captures are compulsory. The pieces that can make the biggest capture are ringed: one of them has to take.

Why did my man not become a king?

It reached the far row in the middle of a capture and had to jump on. A man is crowned only when its move ends on the far row.

Which rules does this game use?

The FMJD's Official Rules for International Draughts: flying kings, men capturing backwards, the majority rule, captured pieces removed only once the capture is over, and the draw rules for repetition, 25 king moves and the king endings. The one limit of our own is 120 moves each, which ends a game that would otherwise run on and on.

What is the Daily game?

Every day everyone plays the medium computer from the same seed, so the computer answers the same moves the same way for everyone, and scores compare directly on the leaderboard.