Classic Draughts Board with Luxury Pieces

A draughts board you can simply leave out. This draughts board has eight rows of eight squares and a pattern of white squares with dark squares that run from gold to black. The round draughts pieces in two colours are included, so you do not have to buy anything separately and can start a game of draughts straight away.

What you get

• A draughts board of eight by eight squares, sixty four squares in total
• Round draughts pieces in two colours, twelve pieces per player
• 3D printed in The Hague from PETG, a sturdy and recyclable plastic
• Finished by hand and made to order, also when you give it as a gift

How to play draughts on this board

You can learn draughts in five minutes. Below are the rules as they apply to a board of eight by eight squares, so exactly this draughts board.

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, so on this board the squares with the gradient from gold to black, and you always move diagonally. The white squares stay empty for the whole game. The photo shows that set up.
3. Moving. In turn you slide a piece one square diagonally forwards, onto an empty square.
4. Capturing is compulsory. If a piece of your opponent 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. Capturing again. If you can capture another piece straight after a capture, you do so in the same turn. That way you sometimes take off two or three at once.
6. Crowning a king. If your piece reaches the back row on the other side, it becomes a king. Put a captured piece of your own colour on top of it, so you can see the difference. A king may also play backwards.
7. Winning. You win if your opponent has no pieces left or cannot make a move any more.

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

There are two sizes. At clubs and in the Dutch draughts competition people play on a draughts 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. This board is the second kind: eight by eight. If you are looking for an official match board for the competition, you need a board of ten by ten and this board is not the right choice. For a game at the kitchen table, eight by eight is the size most people know.

Why this draughts board is different from a standard board

• We make it ourselves. Every board is printed here in The Hague and finished by hand. It does not come out of a container.
• The pieces are included. Many boards are sold on their own. Here you get the draughts pieces in two colours with it.
• The colour gradient differs from board to board. The dark squares run from gold to black. Because we print with a gradient colour, no board is exactly the same.
• PETG instead of thin cardboard. This is a printed board of sturdy plastic, not a folding sheet. It stays flat on the table.
• It can stay out. Thanks to the pattern the board still looks good when nobody is playing, on a shelf or on the coffee table.

What you use this draughts board for

• A game of draughts with children, grandchildren or housemates
• Learning draughts: the rules above are enough to get started
• As a game that simply stays on the table between games
• As a gift for someone who likes board games

About this one

We print this draughts board to order in The Hague from PETG. Every one is finished by hand, so small differences in colour and finish are part of it. If you are looking for the same in another game, have a look at our classic chess board in the same series.

How many squares does a draughts board have?

A board for international draughts, the standard game in the Netherlands, has 10 by 10 squares. That is 100 squares in total, of which only the 50 dark squares are used. This board is the compact home variant with 8 by 8 squares, so 64 squares of which you play on the 32 dark ones.

What is the correct draughts set up?

In international draughts on 10 by 10 each player starts with 20 pieces. You place them on the dark squares of the first four rows on your own side, and the two middle rows stay empty. On this 8 by 8 board the same principle applies with 12 pieces per player on the first three rows; you will find that set up step by step in the rules above.

What does a draughts board look like?

A draughts board is a square board with alternating light and dark squares, and all pieces stand on the dark squares. On this board the light squares are white and the dark squares run from gold to black, which makes every board look slightly different.