Brazilian draughts rules
Brazilian draughts uses the rules of international draughts on the smaller 8×8 board, with 12 pieces each. It is popular in Brazil and is played in international competitions.
The board and pieces
- An 8×8 board, played on the dark squares, with a dark square in each player's left-hand corner. Each player starts with 12 men on their first three rows.
- White moves first.
Moving
- A man moves one square diagonally forward.
- A king is a flying king: it moves any number of empty squares along a diagonal.
Capturing
- Men capture forward and backward.
- A king captures at a distance and may land on any empty square beyond the captured piece; if it can capture again from one of them, it must land there.
- Capturing is compulsory and you must take the largest number of pieces possible; kings and men count the same.
- Captured pieces come off at the end of the move, and no piece can be jumped twice.
Kings
A man is crowned only if it ends its move on the far row. Passing through it during a capture doesn't count.
Winning and draws
- You win when your opponent can't move on their turn.
- We call a draw when the same position comes up for the third time with the same player to move, or after 25 moves each with only kings moving and no capture. With few pieces left against a lone king, the endgame rule applies: three pieces including a king get 16 moves to win; two pieces, or king against king, get 5.