How to Play Draughts: Rules, Setup & Strategy

Set out a chessboard, hand someone twelve discs, and you have a game that has outlived empires. Draughts is the quiet classic of the kitchen table: simple enough for a five-year-old to grasp in a minute, deep enough that grandmasters have spent lifetimes on it. If you have ever pushed a counter diagonally and wondered whether you were doing it right, this is the complete plain-English guide.

A quick note on names. In Britain the game is called draughts; in America the very same game is called checkers. They are identical — same board, same pieces, same rules — so wherever you have seen "checkers" written, read "draughts".

By the end of this guide you will know how to set the board, move and capture, crown a king, and play the handful of ideas that separate a winner from a loser. No jargon, no fluff — just the rules and the thinking behind them.

The board and the setup

Draughts is played on a standard 8×8 board — the very same board used for chess, with sixty-four squares in alternating light and dark. Only the thirty-two dark squares are ever used. Every piece sits on a dark square and every move stays on the dark squares, which is why the whole game travels diagonally.

Each player takes twelve pieces of one colour — traditionally one set black, one set white or red. Place your twelve on the dark squares of the three rows nearest you, filling them completely. That uses all twelve and leaves the two centre rows empty as no-man's-land between the armies.

Sit so that you have a dark square on your near-left corner; that orients the board correctly. Darker pieces conventionally move first. Once both sides are set, the middle is bare and the two front ranks face each other across the gap.

The game is old. It descends from an ancient board game called Alquerque, and the modern form — using a chess-style board — emerged in France around the 12th century, where it was known as Fierges or Ferses. The shape on your table tonight is roughly nine hundred years old. A good wooden set from a range of traditional games makes that lineage feel real.

How the pieces move

An ordinary piece — often called a "man" — moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. That is the whole rule for ordinary movement: one step, diagonally, forwards, into an empty square. Ordinary pieces cannot move sideways, cannot move straight, and cannot move backwards.

Because everything stays on the dark squares, a piece always has at most two simple moves available: forward-left or forward-right. If a square is blocked by another piece — yours or your opponent's — that direction is closed unless a capture is possible (more on that next).

Players alternate turns, moving one piece per turn. There is no rolling of dice and no element of chance: draughts is a game of pure information, where everything is on the board in front of you. The skill lies entirely in choosing which of your pieces to advance and when.

Keeping the moves this simple is exactly why the game suits younger children so well. A child can learn the single movement rule in under a minute, which is part of why draughts has stayed a fixture of family board games for centuries.

Capturing: single jumps, multi-jumps and why it is compulsory

Capturing is the engine of the game. If one of your pieces sits diagonally next to an opponent's piece, and the dark square immediately beyond that piece is empty, you may jump over it: hop diagonally into the empty square and remove the jumped piece from the board.

The best part is the chain. If, after landing, your same piece can immediately jump another opponent piece, it must continue — and it keeps going for as long as further jumps are available. A single turn can sweep two, three or more enemy pieces off the board in one flowing move. These multi-jumps are how games swing in an instant.

Here is the rule that catches every beginner: in English draughts, capturing is compulsory. If a capture is available to you, you must take it — you are not allowed to make a quiet move instead. Where two different captures are on offer, you may choose which to take, but take one you must.

This single rule turns the game from gentle to sharp. A piece left where it can be captured will be captured, so you learn to offer a piece only when the forced reply leaves you better off. It is the heart of draughts tactics, and it works the same on every traditional games set.

Getting crowned: kings and backward movement

When one of your ordinary pieces reaches the far edge of the board — the row of dark squares closest to your opponent, called the king row — it is promoted. The piece is crowned, traditionally by stacking a second captured piece of the same colour on top so it stands taller than the rest.

A king is far more powerful than an ordinary man. It may move and capture diagonally in both directions — forwards and backwards — while ordinary pieces are still locked into moving forward only. A king can therefore chase, retreat, and set up jumps from angles an ordinary piece can never reach.

Crucially, a piece that reaches the king row ends its move there even if it arrived by a jump; it cannot continue capturing on the same turn it is crowned. From your next turn onward, though, the king roams freely in all four diagonal directions.

Racing a piece to the king row is one of the great goals of the game. A single king can turn a losing endgame into a win, which is why protecting your back row — and stopping the enemy reaching theirs — matters so much. Learning to chess-and-draughts crossover comes naturally; many families keep a combined board from our chess range for exactly that reason.

Strategy: how to actually win

You win at draughts by capturing every one of your opponent's pieces, or by leaving them with no legal move on their turn — both count as a win. Everything below is in service of one of those two outcomes.

Control the centre. Pieces in the middle of the board command more squares and more diagonals than pieces stranded on the edge. Push toward the centre early and you dictate where the captures happen. A piece sitting on the side rail is safe but passive — it does half the work.

Hold your back row. The two pieces guarding your king row stop the enemy from crowning. Keep them home as long as you sensibly can; every turn an opponent fails to make a king is a turn you stay level. Give up the back row only when you gain something clearly bigger.

Use compulsory capture against your opponent. Because a capture must be taken, you can offer a single piece to force a reply that opens a bigger jump for you — a two-for-one trade. Trading pieces when you are ahead simplifies toward a won endgame; avoid trading when you are behind. When teaching children, slow this down: let them spot the forced jump themselves, and the strategy lands far better than any lecture. A simple set of wooden draughts pieces in a bag is enough to practise on any chessboard you already own.

Like our wooden draughts and board games, the game itself is built to last — one good set sees a family through years of rematches.

Frequently Asked Questions About Draughts

How do you play draughts?

Draughts is played by two people on a standard 8×8 board, using only the thirty-two dark squares. Each player starts with twelve pieces on the dark squares of their nearest three rows. You take turns moving one piece one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. To capture, you jump diagonally over an adjacent opponent piece into the empty square beyond and remove it; captures are compulsory and can be chained. A piece reaching the far row becomes a king and can move backwards too. You win by capturing all the opponent's pieces or leaving them with no legal move.

How many pieces do you start with in draughts?

Each player starts with twelve pieces, so there are twenty-four pieces on the board at the start of a game. The twelve pieces are placed on the dark squares of the three rows nearest each player, filling all twelve dark squares in those rows. This leaves the two central rows of the 8×8 board empty between the two sides. One player uses dark pieces and the other light or red pieces, and only the dark squares of the board are ever used during play.

What is the difference between draughts and checkers?

There is no difference in the game itself — "draughts" is simply the British name and "checkers" is the American name for exactly the same game. Both are played on an 8×8 board using twelve pieces each on the dark squares, with the same diagonal movement, the same compulsory capturing, and the same king promotion on the far row. If you read instructions written for "checkers", they apply to draughts without any change. The word draughts is standard across the UK, Ireland and much of the Commonwealth.

Do you have to take a piece in draughts?

Yes. In English draughts, capturing is compulsory: if a jump is available to you on your turn, you must take it rather than making an ordinary move. If more than one capture is possible, you may choose which one to make, but you cannot decline to capture altogether. Once you have jumped a piece, if that same piece can immediately jump again you must continue capturing until no further jumps are available. This compulsory-capture rule is central to draughts tactics and is what allows clever players to set up forced trades.

How do you get a king in draughts?

You get a king by moving one of your ordinary pieces all the way to the far edge of the board — the row of dark squares closest to your opponent, known as the king row. As soon as a piece lands there, it is crowned, traditionally by stacking a second piece of the same colour on top so it stands taller. The move ends as soon as the piece is crowned, even if it arrived by a capture. From your next turn, that king can move and capture diagonally both forwards and backwards.

Can a king move backwards in draughts?

Yes. A king can move and capture diagonally in both directions — forwards and backwards — which is what makes it so much stronger than an ordinary piece. Ordinary pieces, by contrast, can only ever move forward one diagonal square and can only capture in the forward direction. A king still travels one diagonal square at a time in English draughts, but it can choose any of the four diagonal directions, letting it chase pieces, retreat from danger, and set up captures an ordinary piece could never reach.

How do you win at draughts?

You win at draughts in one of two ways. The first is to capture every one of your opponent's pieces, leaving them with nothing on the board. The second is to leave your opponent with no legal move on their turn — if all their remaining pieces are blocked and cannot move or capture, they lose even though pieces remain. In practice, games are won by trading pieces when ahead, controlling the centre, protecting your back row, and racing a piece to the king row to gain a powerful king.

What board do you play draughts on?

Draughts is played on a standard 8×8 board — the very same sixty-four-square board used for chess, with alternating light and dark squares. Only the thirty-two dark squares are used in play; every piece sits on a dark square and every move runs diagonally across them. Because the boards are identical, a single wooden chessboard doubles as a draughts board, which is why many sets are sold as combined chess-and-draughts boards. Orient the board so each player has a dark square in their near-left corner.

Where did draughts come from?

Draughts descends from a much older board game called Alquerque, which used a grid of intersecting lines rather than a chequered board. The modern form — played on a chess-style 8×8 board — emerged in France around the 12th century, where it was known as Fierges or Ferses. From France the game spread across Europe and into Britain, where it became known as draughts. The version most people play today, English draughts, has been stable for centuries and is the same game sold worldwide as checkers.

Is draughts good for children to learn?

Yes — draughts is one of the best first strategy games for children, often suitable from around age five. The rules are simple enough to learn in a minute, but the game quietly teaches planning, cause-and-effect and patience, since every move is fully visible with no luck involved. Compulsory capturing gives children a clear pattern to spot, and crowning a king is a satisfying goal to work toward. A sturdy wooden set, played without screens, makes it an easy game to return to again and again across the years.