Equipment
The game of Draughts is played on a standard Chessboard. Each player has 12 pieces; the board is placed between the two opponents the same way as for Chess.
Preparation and Objective
Black always plays first. Each player’s pieces are placed on the 12 black squares nearest to that player.
The objective of the game is to take all of the opponent’s pieces or to produce a position such that the opponent is unable to move.
Play
Players take turns to move a piece of their own colour. Any piece that reaches the far edge of the board is immediately crowned and is thereafter known as a “King”. The act of crowning is a physical one – another piece of the same shade is placed on top of the piece in order to distinguish it from an ordinary piece.
Until a piece is “crowned”, it can only move and capture in a diagonally forwards direction. Kings are allowed to move and capture diagonally forwards and backwards and are consequently more powerful and valuable than ordinary pieces. However, ordinary pieces can capture Kings.
Whenever a piece has an opponent’s piece adjacent to it and the square immediately beyond the opponent’s piece is vacant, the opponent’s piece can be captured. If the player has the opportunity to capture one or more of the opponent’s pieces, then the player must do so. A piece is taken by simply hopping over it into the vacant square beyond and removing it from the board. Unlike an ordinary move, a capturing move can consist of several such hops – if a piece takes an opponent’s piece and the new position allows it to take another piece, then it must do so straight away. The move finishes only when the position of the capturing piece no longer allows it to taken any more pieces.
If more than one piece can capture, then the player is free to choose which of those pieces to move. Similarly, if a capturing piece is able to capture in more than one direction, the player is free to choose which direction to move in. It is not compulsory to move the piece in a way that will take the maximum number of captures.
If no capturing moves are available, then an ordinary move is made by moving a piece one square diagonally.
If a player notices that the opponent failed to capture when the option was open, that player can huff the offending piece before the next move is made and it is removed from the board (this rule was introduced in France around 1535).
Finishing
The game is won by the player who first manages to take all his opponent’s pieces or renders them unable to move.
A draw occurs by agreement at any point during the game.
