Sports · Draughts
Draughts: the street game with a world stage.
A board, twenty-four pieces and pure calculation. Draughts is played in Dar es Salaam on bottle caps and in world championships on tournament boards. This page tells its story, explains the rules and variants, shares strategy, and lets you play a practice game right here.
History
Nine centuries on the same diagonal.
Draughts did not have one inventor. It grew, rule by rule, from older jumping games into the modern sport. Dates before the 18th century are approximate, as historians still debate details.
Antiquity
Capture by jumping
Games in which a piece captures by jumping over an opponent are very old. Boards and pieces from the ancient Near East and Egypt show that people played strategy games on grids thousands of years ago, although the exact rules of most of them are lost.
Middle Ages
Alquerque
Alquerque, from the Arabic al-qirq, was played on a 5×5 grid of lines with the same jumping capture. It travelled with Arab culture into Spain, and the Castilian Book of Games of King Alfonso X (1283) describes it. Most historians see it as a direct ancestor of draughts.
About 12th century
Pieces meet the chessboard
In southern France, players put alquerque-style pieces on the checkered chessboard and moved them diagonally. The game, called fierges, crowned a piece that reached the far side, a name borrowed from the chess queen. This is the moment draughts as we know it took shape.
About 16th century
Capturing becomes compulsory
French players made capture mandatory (jeu forcé). This one rule turned a casual pastime into a game of traps, sacrifices and forced combinations, and it is still the heart of every serious variant.
1756
The first English textbook
William Payne, a teacher of mathematics, published An Introduction to the Game of Draughts in London. Analysis on paper made 8×8 draughts a study, the foundation of English draughts and American checkers.
18th century
The 10×10 international board
A larger 10×10 game with 20 pieces each, long-range kings and backwards captures grew in France and the Netherlands. Often called Polish draughts, it became international draughts, today the main competitive form in Europe and much of Africa.
1947
A world federation
The Fédération Mondiale du Jeu de Dames (FMJD) was founded to organise international draughts, world championships and ratings.
20th century
Africa at the top
West African players changed the game. Baba Sy of Senegal is widely regarded as one of the greatest draughts players of all time, and Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso remain strong draughts nations.
2007
Computers solve checkers
The Chinook team at the University of Alberta proved that 8×8 English draughts ends in a draw with perfect play from both sides. It is a reminder of how deep the game is: it took decades of computing to see to the bottom.
Today
Tanzania and AFMIND
Drafti is played in barazas, markets and bus stands across Tanzania. MOFULI built AFMIND to give these players a national competition with registration, results and rankings, offering British and French draughts on its platform.
Photo: Michiel Sweerts · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Rules
The rules in two minutes.
Basic rules (flying-king family: Russian, Brazilian, international)
- The board is placed with a dark square in each player's bottom-left corner. Only dark squares are used.
- Each player starts with 12 pieces (20 on the 10×10 board) on the first three (four) rows. White moves first.
- An ordinary piece (man) moves one square diagonally forward.
- A man captures by jumping over an enemy piece to the empty square right behind it, forwards or backwards.
- Capturing is compulsory. If after a capture the same piece can capture again, it must continue in the same move.
- A man that ends its move on the far row becomes a king. The king flies: it moves any distance along a diagonal and captures from a distance.
- You win when your opponent has no pieces left or cannot make a legal move.
Photo: TaurusEmerald · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Variants
One family, many dialects.
All variants share diagonal play and compulsory capture. Here are the ones you are most likely to meet.
| Variant | Board | Pieces | Men capture backwards? | King | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English draughts / American checkers | 8×8 | 12 | No | One square | UK, USA, Commonwealth |
| Russian draughts | 8×8 | 12 | Yes | Flying | Russia and neighbours |
| Brazilian draughts | 8×8 | 12 | Yes | Flying | Brazil; international rules on a small board |
| Pool checkers | 8×8 | 12 | Yes | Flying | USA |
| International (Polish) draughts | 10×10 | 20 | Yes | Flying; maximum capture rule | Europe, West Africa, world championships |
| Canadian draughts | 12×12 | 30 | Yes | Flying | Canada |
| Turkish draughts (dama) | 8×8 | 16 | Moves straight, not diagonally | Flying (straight lines) | Turkey, Middle East |
Draughts in Tanzania
Bottle caps, a painted board and a crowd.
Walk through any Tanzanian town in the evening and you will find a board: painted on plywood, scratched into a table, or drawn on cardboard. The pieces are soda bottle caps, one colour turned up, the other turned down. Kings are made by stacking two caps.
- A social game. Onlookers comment, argue about moves and wait for the winner. It is as much about the community as the board.
- Fast and sharp. Street games are quick, tactical and full of traps, a natural school for calculation.
- From the street to a record. AFMIND gives these players registration, official results and a national ranking, so talent is seen.
Photo: Saliousoft · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Strategy
Think like a champion.
Own the centre
Pieces in the centre control more squares and support each other. Edge pieces have half the options.
Guard your back row
Keep key back-row pieces home as long as possible: they stop the opponent from crowning a king.
Trade when ahead
A one-piece lead grows in value as the board empties. When ahead, exchange; when behind, keep pieces on.
Use forced capture
Because capturing is compulsory, a sacrifice can drag an enemy piece where you want it, then you take two or three back.
Count tempo
In closed positions, the player who runs out of safe waiting moves first often loses. Count spare moves before committing.
Kings win endgames
A flying king dominates long diagonals. In the endgame, race to crown first and take the main diagonal.
Touch-move discipline
In competitions a touched piece must be moved. Train yourself to decide first, then touch.
Review your games
Write down moves (a1–h8) and replay losses. Most improvement comes from understanding your own mistakes.
Play
A practice board in your browser.
Play against a simple computer or a friend. The board follows the flying-king rules above.
- Tap one of your pieces, then a highlighted square.
- Practice rules: men capture forwards and backwards, capture is compulsory, multiple captures continue, kings fly.
- The computer is a friendly sparring partner, not a grandmaster. Real competition lives on AFMIND.
Gallery
Draughts across the world.
Tap a picture to enlarge it. Every image is openly licensed; authors are credited under each one.
Why play
What draughts builds in a person.
Calculation
Every capture sequence is a small calculation. Players learn to see several moves ahead.
Patience
Quiet positions reward the player who waits for the right moment.
Fair play
Shake hands, accept the result, learn from the loss: the habits of every good competitor.
School skills
Coordinates, counting and planning support mathematics and reading discipline for children.
Is draughts easier than chess?
Which variant does AFMIND use?
How can my school or club join?
Ready for a real opponent?
Register on AFMIND, play in national competitions and earn a place in the ranking.