Set up, jump, crown
Checkers is played on the dark squares: twelve men per side on rows 2 and 3 of an 8×8 board, stepping one square diagonally forward and capturing by jumps that are never optional. Reach the far row and the man is crowned the dama — the king. What it may do next depends on your variant: one diagonal step in English draughts, or a flying slide of any distance in the international and Brazilian game.
| Rule | English (checkers) |
|---|---|
| Board | 8×8, 64 squares |
| Men per side | 12 |
| Start position | Dark squares of rows 2–3; 24 of 32 dark squares filled |
| Man's move | 1 square diagonally forward; may capture backwards, never move backwards |
| King (dama) move | Exactly 1 square diagonally, any direction |
| Capture rule | Compulsory jumps |
| Promotion | Row 8; crowned mid-jump, the man stops and the move ends |
| Draw rule | Draw after 25–50 quiet moves, varying by ruleset |
Dark squares only: twelve men per side on rows 2 and 3, with the middle of the board left open.
Checkers is played entirely on the dark squares. An English-draughts board has 64 squares in an 8×8 grid, 32 of them dark, and only those 32 are ever used. Set the board so both armies sit on dark squares before a single man is placed.
Each side starts with 12 men on the dark squares of rows 2 and 3, in the row numbering this guide uses. Together the two armies fill 24 of the 32 dark squares, which leaves 8 dark squares open between them — the corridor where every capture and every crowning will later happen.
The international game scales the same idea up: a 10×10 board of 100 squares, 50 of them dark, with 20 men per side filling 40 of those 50 dark squares at the start. The full setup checklist, including who moves first and the opening moves that follow, lives on the setup page.
With no fixed dates to chart, this guide tracks phases instead: setup, the exchange of compulsory captures, and the endgame of damas under the quiet-move count.
Scan for a jump first — if one exists you must take it — otherwise step one man one square diagonally forward.
Every turn begins with the same check: is any of your men sitting diagonally next to an enemy man with an empty square directly behind it? If yes, a capture is available, and captures are compulsory in all four main variants — you may not choose a quiet move instead. Most casual turns resolve in seconds, but the jump scan is the one habit that separates a played game from a pushed-around one.
Where more than one jump exists, the variant decides. International draughts enforces the majority rule: you must take the longest chain available, so a branch capturing 4 men beats one capturing 2. A chain keeps going as long as the landing square offers another jump, and captured men come off the board as you go.
The long horizon of a game is set by the draw rule rather than the clock: federations commonly declare a draw after 25–50 consecutive moves with no capture and no promotion. The five steps below are the full turn procedure, each named after the failure that ruins it.
The piece gains movement power — but exactly how much depends on the variant you are playing.
Promotion happens on the far row: row 8 on an 8×8 board, row 10 on a 10×10 board. The crowned piece is the king, called the dama in the Spanish and Portuguese game — the name this site carries. From the moment of crowning, the variant's king rule replaces the man's single forward step.
In English draughts the king moves exactly one square diagonally, but in any direction, forward or backward. The flying king of international and Brazilian draughts is stronger: it slides any distance along a clear diagonal and may turn after each jump, so one dama can sweep a long diagonal and change direction in the middle of a capture chain.
One rule catches nearly every new player: in English draughts a man crowned during a jump stops on the crown square and the move ends there as a king. Even if a further jump would be available to a king, it waits for the next turn. The capture and promotion page walks through the full mechanics.
| Rule | English (checkers) | International | Brazilian | Turkish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Board | 8×8, 64 squares | 10×10, 100 squares | 8×8, 64 squares | 8×8, 64 squares |
| Men per side | 12 | 20 | 12 | 16 |
| Start position | Dark squares of rows 2–3; 24 of 32 dark squares filled | 40 of 50 dark squares filled | Same start as English | Rows 2–3, back row left empty |
| Man's move | 1 square diagonally forward; may capture backwards, never move backwards | 1 square diagonally forward | 1 square diagonally forward | Forwards or sideways only |
| King (dama) move | Exactly 1 square diagonally, any direction | Flying: any distance along a clear diagonal, may turn after each jump | Flying, as in international | — |
| Capture rule | Compulsory jumps | Compulsory, and the longest chain must be taken — 4 men beats 2 | Compulsory jumps | Compulsory jumps |
| Promotion | Row 8; crowned mid-jump, the man stops and the move ends | Row 10 | Row 8 | Row 8 |
| Draw rule | Draw after 25–50 quiet moves, varying by ruleset | Same 25–50 range, by federation | Same range, by ruleset | Same range, by ruleset |
The guide follows the standard published descriptions of the English, international, Brazilian and Turkish rule sets.