Draughts rules

How to play draughts

1. Setting up. Each player gets twelve pieces of one colour. You place them on the three rows on your own side of the board. The two middle rows stay empty.
2. On the dark squares. You play the whole game on the dark squares and you always move diagonally. The white squares stay empty throughout.
3. Moving. Taking turns, you move one piece one square diagonally forward, to an empty square.
4. Capturing is compulsory. If an opponent piece is diagonally in front of you and the square behind it is empty, you have to jump over it and take that piece off the board. If you can capture, you are not allowed to do anything else.
5. Multiple captures. If you can capture another piece straight after a capture, you do so in the same turn. That way you sometimes take two or three at once.
6. Getting a king. When your piece reaches the far row on the other side it becomes a king. Put a captured piece of your own colour on top of it so you can tell the difference. A king may also move backwards.
7. Winning. You win when your opponent has no pieces left or cannot make a move.

What is the correct draughts setup?

Place the board so that the square in the bottom left is dark. Each player puts their twelve pieces on the three rows on their own side, on the dark squares only. The two rows in the middle stay empty, so both players have room for the first move. On the international ten by ten board each player has twenty pieces on the four rows on their own side.

How many squares does a draughts board have?

A board for international draughts, the standard in the Netherlands, has ten by ten squares. That is a hundred squares in total, of which only the fifty dark ones are used. The compact living room version has eight by eight squares, so sixty-four squares of which you play on the thirty-two dark ones.

Eight by eight or ten by ten: which board do you need?

There are two sizes. Clubs and the Dutch draughts competition play on a board of ten by ten squares with twenty pieces per player. At home, at school and in most game boxes, draughts is played on eight by eight squares with twelve pieces per player. The rules above apply to both sizes; only the number of squares and pieces differs.

What is the difference with chess?

In chess every piece has its own way of moving and the game is about the king. In draughts all pieces are equal, you only move diagonally across the dark squares, and you win by capturing all your opponent pieces. A chess board and an eight by eight draughts board look the same; the difference is in the pieces and the rules.

Getting a draughts board of your own

We print a classic draughts board of eight by eight squares with the pieces included, and in the same series a chess board with pieces. Both sit together among the luxury chess boards and draughts boards.