Italian draughts rules
Italian draughts, dama italiana, is the national form of the game in Italy. It looks like American checkers but has stricter capture rules.
The board and pieces
- An 8×8 board, played on the dark squares. The board is turned so that each player has a dark square in their right-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 moves one square diagonally, forward or backward. Kings don't fly.
Capturing
- A piece captures by jumping an adjacent enemy piece onto the empty square beyond, and keeps jumping while it can.
- Men capture forward only, and a man may not capture a king.
- Capturing is compulsory, and when there is a choice these rules decide, in order: take the most pieces; if equal, capture with a king rather than a man; if still equal, take the most kings; if still equal, take a king as early in the sequence as possible. Any remaining choice is yours.
Kings
A man that reaches the far row becomes a king and its move ends there.
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 40 moves each with no capture and no man moved (only kings moving).