Draughts

How to play draughts

The rules

• Draughts is played on a board of 64 squares, on the dark squares only, with a dark corner square on each player's left. Each side has twelve men on the dark squares of the three rows nearest them. Black moves first.
• A man moves one square diagonally forward to an empty square.
• A man captures by jumping diagonally forward over an enemy piece next to it, onto the empty square just beyond. If it can jump again from there, it goes on. Captured pieces stay on the board until the move is over, and no piece is jumped twice.
• A man that reaches the far row is crowned: a second piece is set on top, and it becomes a king. Crowning ends the move, even if another capture was open.
• A king moves forward or backward along a diagonal, as many empty squares as it likes, and captures both forward and backward. A king can be taken by a man or a king.
• Capturing is compulsory. If you could capture and don't, or stop a chain of captures early, your opponent chooses one of three answers: huff the piece you moved (take it off the board, then make their own move), demand that you take your move back and capture, or accept your move and play on.
• If more than one piece can capture, you choose which, even if another would take more. But the piece you choose must take everything it can.
• You win when your opponent has no pieces left, or none that can move.

In this version

• The king captures at a distance: it jumps an enemy piece anywhere along its diagonal, with only empty squares between, and lands on any empty square beyond it. From there it goes on capturing if it can.
• The game is drawn if the same position comes up three times, or after fifty moves without a capture or a crowning.
• The machine always captures when it can, and takes everything it can. If you fail to capture, it decides for itself whether to huff, demand or accept, whichever pays best.

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