Russian draughts rules
Russian draughts, or shashki, is the most played form of draughts across Russia and the former Soviet Union. It is played on the 8×8 board with flying kings.
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 along a diagonal 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, but you are free to choose which capture to make, even one that takes fewer pieces. Once started, a sequence must be finished.
- No piece may be jumped twice in one move; captured pieces come off the board at the end of the move.
Kings
A man that reaches the far row becomes a king at once, even in the middle of a capture, and if it can keep capturing it carries on as a king in the same move.
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 15 moves each with only kings moving and no capture.