International Draughts

How to play International Draughts (10×10)

International draughts — also known as Polish draughts or 10×10 draughts — is the version of checkers played at world-championship level under FMJD rules. It looks like the familiar 8×8 game but plays very differently: the board is bigger, ordinary men capture backwards as well as forwards, kings "fly" along whole diagonals like a chess bishop, and when several captures are possible you are forced to take the sequence that removes the most pieces. Those three changes turn a friendly parlour game into one of the deepest strategy games in the world, with brilliant multi-piece combinations decided many moves in advance. Play a friend on the same screen, or challenge the computer at three difficulty levels and earn ranking points for every win.

The goal

Win by capturing all of your opponent’s pieces, or by blocking them so that they have no legal move on their turn. White always moves first, then the players alternate. A long endgame in which only kings shuffle around can also end in a draw — see the draw rule below.

The board and the pieces

The game is played on the dark squares of a 10×10 board. Each player starts with 20 men filling the four rows nearest to them, leaving the two middle rows empty. White sits at the bottom and moves up the board; Black sits at the top and moves down. All movement is diagonal, so the pieces stay on the dark squares for the whole game. Promoted pieces (kings) are marked with a crown.

How the pieces move and capture

• A man moves one square diagonally FORWARD to an adjacent empty square. Men never step backwards or sideways — the only way a man moves toward its own side is by capturing.
• A man CAPTURES both forward AND backward: if an enemy piece stands diagonally next to it — in any of the four directions — and the square directly beyond is empty, the man jumps over it and the enemy piece is captured. This backward capture is one of the biggest differences from English checkers.
• Captures are MANDATORY. If any capture is available you may not play a quiet move, and once a piece starts capturing it must keep jumping for as long as another capture is available from the square it lands on. The whole chain counts as one move.
• THE MAJORITY RULE: when different capture sequences are possible, you MUST play one that captures the maximum number of pieces. Only the count matters — a king and a man each count as one. If two or more sequences tie for the maximum, you choose freely between them.
• A king is a FLYING king: it slides any number of empty squares along a diagonal in one move, forward or backward, like a bishop in chess. It cannot jump over its own pieces or land on an occupied square.
• A king captures at distance: it flies along a diagonal, jumps the first enemy piece it meets (all squares before it must be empty) and may land on ANY empty square beyond that piece. From the landing square it must continue the chain if another capture is available — the choice of landing square often decides how many pieces the whole sequence takes.
• PROMOTION: a man becomes a king only if its move ENDS on the far row. A man that merely passes through the last row in the middle of a multi-capture does NOT promote — it keeps jumping as a man and remains a man afterwards.
• DEFERRED REMOVAL: captured pieces are taken off the board only after the whole sequence is finished. Until then they stay on their squares as obstacles — a piece may never be jumped twice in one chain, and a king may not fly over a piece it has already captured (the famous "Turkish strike" rule).

How it differs from English checkers

• Bigger battlefield: a 10×10 board with 20 men per side, instead of 8×8 with 12. Games are longer and combinations far richer.
• Men capture backwards. In English checkers a man may only jump forward; here every man threatens all four diagonal directions, so danger comes from everywhere.
• Kings fly. An English king moves one square at a time; an international king covers a whole diagonal in one move and captures from long range, making a single king enormously powerful.
• The majority rule and deferred removal. English checkers lets you choose any available jump; here you are forced to take the sequence capturing the most pieces, and captured pieces block further jumps until the move is over.

Winning and drawing

You win by removing every enemy piece from the board, or by leaving your opponent with pieces but no legal move — a blockade wins immediately, because a player who cannot move loses. Thanks to mandatory maximum captures, material usually decides: one careless move can lose several pieces to a forced combination.

THE 25-MOVE DRAW RULE used here: if 25 consecutive moves per side are played in which nothing is captured and no man is moved (i.e. only kings shuffle around), the game is declared a draw. This prevents endless king-versus-king endgames. Any capture or any move by a man resets the count. In the two-player game you can also use Undo to take back moves.

Playing the computer (ranked)

In "International Draughts vs Computer" you choose your colour and one of three levels. Easy plays loosely and makes deliberate mistakes, so newcomers can win. Normal looks ahead and punishes blunders. Expert searches deeper, hunts multi-piece combinations and never misses the maximum capture. The computer thinks entirely on your device, so it works offline. Beat it to earn ranking points — Easy +10, Normal +30, Expert +100 — and sign in to put your best result on the leaderboard.

Strategy tips

• Count every forced capture before you move. Because captures are compulsory and maximal, you can often FORCE the opponent’s reply: sacrifice one man so that the enemy must jump it, then win two or three back with the follow-up. Most games are decided by such combinations.
• Mind your back row and your edges. A man on the edge can only be attacked from two directions, but it also captures in only two — strong players keep their men connected near the centre where they defend each other.
• Race for the first king, but not at any price. A flying king dominates the whole board, controlling two full diagonals at once. Trading two men for a clear path to promotion is often worth it — letting your opponent promote first rarely is.
• Watch for the Turkish strike and landing choices. When your king captures, the square you land on decides what it can take next — and remember that pieces already jumped stay on the board and block your path until the move ends.

Frequently asked questions