Twelve men each, on the dark squares of an eight by eight board. Men step forward and capture in any direction. Kings cross the whole board in one move. Every country plays draughts a little differently, so this page says exactly which rules our tables use.
The same rules as the ones written below. No account, and nothing is kept.
Twelve men each, on the dark squares. The pale pieces at the bottom are yours.
An eight by eight board, and only the 32 dark squares are used. Each player starts with twelve men on the dark squares of the three rows nearest them. The first seat moves first. On this page that is you.
A man moves one square diagonally forward, onto an empty square. Men never step backwards.
If an opposing piece is diagonally next to your man and the square straight beyond it is empty, jump over it and take it. A man captures in all four diagonal directions, backwards as well as forwards.
If any of your pieces can capture, you have to capture. An ordinary move is not allowed. When there is more than one capture, you choose. You do not have to take the one that wins the most pieces.
After a capture, if the same piece can capture again from where it landed, it must, and it stays your turn until it can't. Each piece comes off the board the moment it is jumped, not at the end of the turn.
A man that ends its turn on the far row becomes a king. If it lands there in the middle of a run of jumps and can still capture, it keeps jumping as a man, and is crowned only if the run ends on that row.
A king moves any number of squares along an open diagonal, in any direction. It captures a piece anywhere along that diagonal, as long as the squares between them are empty and there is an empty square beyond the piece. It may land on any empty square beyond it, up to the next piece in the way. One piece to a jump: two pieces standing together on the diagonal can't be jumped.
You win when your opponent has no pieces left, or has pieces but no legal move on their turn. If sixty turns in a row, counting both players, pass with no capture and no man moved, the game is a draw.
Draughts is a bench game across West Africa: a board outside the barbershop, bottle caps for pieces, from Lagos to Dakar. The game did not start here, and in America it is called checkers.
Every yard plays slightly different rules. If your bench says you must take the most pieces, or that a jumped piece stays on the board until the turn is over, your bench is not wrong. The rules above are the ones our tables use, so that two people who have never met can sit down and agree.
Draughts is one of the games in the Arcade.