BN-games

Checkers rules: Russian shashki and English draughts

Checkers comes in many national variants. BN-games has two. In Russian checkers (shashki) men also capture backwards, kings fly along whole diagonals, and a man that reaches the far row in the middle of a capture keeps jumping as a king. English draughts — American checkers — has kings that move one square at a time and men that capture only forwards.

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Soviet Shashki

Setup

Each player has 12 men on the dark squares of the three rows closest to them on an 8×8 board. White moves first.

Men

A man moves one square diagonally forward to an empty dark square.

Man Captures

A man captures by jumping over an adjacent opponent — forward or backward — landing on the empty square just beyond. Captures are mandatory.

Kings (Damka)

A man that reaches the opponent's back row is promoted to a king. Kings are flying — they slide any number of empty squares along a diagonal in either direction.

King Captures

A king captures by sliding any number of empty squares along a diagonal, jumping a single opponent, and landing on any empty square beyond it.

Chain Captures

If a capture is possible from the landing square, the chain continues in the same turn. The player chooses which legal chain to play — there is no maximum-pieces rule.

Mid-jump Promotion

A man that lands on the king row mid-chain promotes immediately and continues the chain as a king.

Ending

You win by capturing every opponent piece or by leaving them with no legal move. Draws occur on 15 consecutive king-only moves, threefold repetition, or insufficient material.

English Draughts

Setup

Each player has 12 men on the dark squares of the three rows closest to them on an 8×8 board. Black moves first.

Men

A man moves one square diagonally forward to an empty dark square.

Man Captures

A man captures only by jumping forward over an adjacent opponent, landing on the empty square just beyond. Captures are mandatory.

Kings

A man that reaches the opponent's back row is promoted to a king. Kings move one square diagonally in either direction — forward or backward.

King Captures

A king captures by jumping over an adjacent opponent — forward or backward — landing on the empty square just beyond.

Chain Captures

If another capture is available from the landing square, the chain continues in the same turn. A man that reaches the king row mid-chain promotes, but the chain ends there.

Ending

You win by capturing every opponent piece or by leaving them with no legal move. A draw is declared after 40 consecutive king-only moves with no capture or man advance.

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