Checkers Lover (part 2)

Moves: Men and King
Men’s move only diagonally one square forward, but captures may be made diagonally forwards and backwards. They are crowned only when the move finishes in the last row. If one man reaches the last during a capture move but it must continue jumping backwards, it doesn’t become a king. Kings can move any number of squares, diagonally forwards or backwards.

Maximum capture compulsory
If there are two or more different chances to make capture, it’s compulsory to make the move that captures the maximum amount of the opponent's pieces.

Particularities about the end of the game:

• The game ends in a draw after doing 25 king moves in a row without advancing any man nor doing any capture.
• When one player has 3 pieces, being a king at least one of them, and the opponent only has one king, the game ends in a draw if the victory is not achieved in 10 turns.
• When one player has 2 pieces, being a king at least one of them, and the opponent only has one king, the game ends in a draw if the victory is not achieved in 5 turns.

Italian Checkers

Basically, this variant is practised in Italy, where it’s as popular as International draughts.

Board and pieces
8x8 draughtboard with lower right black corner. Each player starts with 12 men (white and black) placed on the first 3 rows. Dark squares are used.



Moves: Men and Kings
Men move and capture only diagonally forwards, and Kings move and capture diagonally forwards or backwards, but they can’t jump over empty cells. So the only difference with men is the option to move backwards. Unlike the remaining variants, Anglo-American and Italian checkers don’t allow the flying king.

Capture compulsory
The significant differences between Checkers and Italian checkers are related with the rules regarding captures. Men can never jump over kings. There is also a complex rule applied to force certain capture moves:

• Maximum capture compulsory: if there are two or more different chances to make capture, it’s compulsory to make the move that captures the maximum amount of the opponent's pieces.
• Between different maximum capture options, captures made with kings have higher priority than captures made with men.
• Quality capture compulsory: if there are still two or more different chances with the same priority, it’s compulsory to capture the maximum amount of kings.
• Finally, the last criterion is the obligation to choose the move that first captures one king in the sequence of jumps.

Particularities about the end of the game

• The game ends in a draw after doing 80 king moves in a row without advancing any man nor doing any capture.

Anglo-American Checkers

This is the more played variant in Anglo-Saxon countries (especially in USA and UK).

Board and pieces
8x8 draughtboard with lower right white corner (usually clear squares are yellow and dark squares green). Each player starts with 12 men (dark, usually red, for the first, and white for the opponent) placed on the first 3 rows. Dark squares are used.



Moves: Men and Kings
Men move and capture only diagonally forwards while Kings move and capture diagonally forwards or backwards, but they can’t jump over empty cells. So the only difference with men is the option to move backwards.

Particularities about the end of the game

• The game ends in a draw after doing 100 king moves in a row without advancing any man nor doing any capture.

Pool Checkers

This variant is played in some states in the south of USA. It’s very similar to Brazilian checkers (International draughts 8x8), but in this case the rule about the maximum quantity capture is not applied. The captures are compulsories in the same way as Russian checkers.

Board and pieces
8x8 draughtboard with lower right white corner. Each player starts with 12 men (white and black) placed on the first 3 rows. Dark squares are used.



Moves: Men and Kings
Men move only diagonally one square forward, but captures may be made diagonally forwards and backwards. They are crowned only when the move finishes in the last row. If one man reaches the last during a capture move but it must continue jumping backwards, it doesn’t become a king. Kings move any number of squares, diagonally forwards or backwards.

Capture compulsory
If possible, any capture move must be made, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be the move that captures the maximum amount of pieces. When one king jumps over an opponent piece and there are several possible squares to land on, there is a higher priority for the squares from whom it is possible to go on jumping.

Particularities about the end of the game

• The game ends in a draw after doing 25 king moves in a row without advancing any man nor doing any capture.

(to be continued)