Draughts

How to play draughts

From the book's pages

• Twelve pieces each on a board of 64 squares, set up on the coloured squares as in the picture, with a dark corner square at the left of each player. Black has the first move.
• The pieces move diagonally forward one square at a time, to an empty square.
• A piece captures by jumping diagonally forward over an enemy piece to the empty square beyond it. If you can capture another, you must. Pieces taken in the same move stay on the board until the move is complete, and the same piece is jumped only once.
• A piece that reaches the opponent's back row becomes a king: another piece is placed on top. Crowning ends the move, even if the piece could have captured further.
• The king moves one or more squares at a time, forward or backward, and captures both forward and backward. A king can be taken by a piece or a king.
• If a piece can capture, it must. If a player fails to, the opponent may demand that the proper move is made, accept the faulty move if it suits him, or huff the piece: remove it from the board. Huffing is not a move, so he moves straight afterwards.
• If you can capture with several pieces, you choose which — not necessarily the one that takes the most. But the one you choose must take all it can; spare one, and you may be huffed.
• The winner is the one who has taken all the opponent's pieces, or blocked them so they cannot move. If neither can force a decision, it is a draw.

My choices

• The king captures as in Polish draughts: it jumps over a piece on the diagonal, at any distance, and lands on a free square beyond it of its own choosing; from there it captures on if it can.
• A draw when the same position occurs three times, or after fifty moves without a capture or a crowning.
• The machine always captures when it can, and all it can; if you fail to, it chooses for itself between huffing, demanding and accepting, by whatever pays.

New game