This table uses 10×10 international draughts: dark squares only, twenty men a side, Black to move. Men may capture backward. Kings fly along empty diagonals. When a capture exists you must take the sequence that captures the most pieces. It is not 8×8 English draughts, not Chinese checkers, and not chess. The sections below follow the order a real game actually happens. Read them once, then try a local computer game and take every longest capture.
How you move a piece here
Select one of your men that can actually move, then select the dark square it is allowed to reach. If nothing happens, that piece has no legal walk, or a capture somewhere on the board is still waiting to be taken.
Uncrowned men walk toward the row where the other side started. They do not step onto a light square. A quiet step cannot retreat, but a capture may hop backward as well as forward.
Dark squares and the first move
One hundred squares, but only the dark ones matter. Each side begins with twenty men on the four closest dark rows. Black moves, then White, and so on. A tap on a light square is ignored; that is the rule, not a fault in the page.
Walking forward, hopping over
An uncrowned man steps one dark square diagonally toward the far side. To capture, it hops an adjacent enemy on any of the four diagonals — including backward — and lands on the empty dark square immediately beyond. The hopped piece comes off at once. If that same man can hop again from the new square, the turn is not over.
Before you look two captures ahead, ask the shorter question: can any of your men hop something right now? If yes, the next section applies. If not, pick a man that either advances or still guards the last row.
When a quiet slide is illegal
If any legal hop exists, you must play a hopping move. You may choose among several jumping lines; you must take the sequence that captures the most pieces, and if two sequences capture equally many, the one that captures more kings. Once a multi-jump has started, that piece keeps hopping while another hop is available from the square it just reached.
What a flying king is allowed to do
A man that stops on the farthest row at the end of its turn becomes a flying king. A king may travel any number of empty dark squares along a diagonal. After hopping an enemy it may land on any empty square beyond, then continue the capture if another hop is available.
Passing the back rank in the middle of a capturing run does not crown the man; promotion waits until that turn has finished on the last row. Against the computer you may sit Black or White; on a shared device or in a room, the two players simply alternate. The rules do not change between those modes.
When the game is over
You win when the other side has no men left, or when it is their turn and they have no legal move. You may also agree a draw. This board records a draw after a long stretch with neither a capture nor a crowning.
For a first sitting, ignore the score. Stay on the dark squares, take every hop you are required to take, and notice when a man reaches the last row. That is already a complete game of international draughts.
Questions people ask before the first game
Is this the same game as Chinese checkers?
No. Chinese checkers is played on a star, and pieces hop along lines of empty holes to race home. This board is 10×10 international draughts. You are trying to take the other side’s men or leave them with nowhere to go.
Can I ignore a jump and move a different man?
No. If a legal hop exists, you have to hop. When more than one hopping line is available you may pick which one to take, but you cannot answer with a quiet step instead.
Does a king fly the length of a diagonal?
Yes. This board is 10×10 international draughts. A king may travel an empty diagonal, and after a capture it may land on any empty square beyond before hopping again.
Who starts, and can a piece sit on a light square?
Black starts. Pieces only rest on dark squares. Tapping a light square does not place anything.
