Checkers & Draughts Guides

Four variants compared, every guide in one place · Updated August 20, 2026

Four draughts variants are playable on Checkers Arena, and they are not four skins of one game — they differ in board size, in the direction pieces capture, in how far a king travels and in whether you are forced to take the biggest capture on offer. This page compares them rule by rule, then points you at the complete guide for each. Everything here is free to read, and you can jump straight into a game whenever you like.

Which variant should you play?

If you have never played before, play American checkers. It is the version with the fewest rules to remember, and every other variant on this site is easier to learn once its habits are in your hands. The honest summary of the other three:

• You want sharper tactics on a familiar board → Brazilian draughts. Same 8×8 board, same twelve pieces, but men capture backwards and kings fly, so combinations appear that simply cannot exist in American checkers.
• You want the tournament standard → international draughts. The 10×10 board with twenty pieces a side is what world championships are played on, and it is the deepest game here.
• You want something that feels genuinely different → Turkish draughts. Pieces move forward and sideways on every square rather than diagonally on half of them, which changes how the board looks to you more than any rule tweak could.

You do not have to commit. The variant tabs sit directly above the board, so switching takes one click and no setup — and the same computer opponent plays all four.

The four variants side by side

Everything below is how the games are actually implemented in the rules engine that runs this site — the same engine the board, the computer opponent and the server-side move validation all share, so the table cannot drift away from what you experience when you play.

What the three rule switches actually change

Read the table again and you will notice the variants are mostly three switches flipped in different combinations: can men capture backwards, do kings fly, and must you take the most pieces. Each one changes how the game feels far more than its one-line description suggests.

Backward captures make the board dangerous in both directions

In American checkers a man that has passed an enemy piece is safe from it. In Brazilian and international draughts it is not — an uncrowned man captures in all four diagonal directions, so a piece you walked past two moves ago can still take you. This is the rule that catches out American players most often, and it is why short, forcing combinations are so much more common in the international family.

Flying kings turn a promotion into a piece that owns the board

An American king is worth roughly one and a half men: useful, but it still crawls one square at a time. A flying king slides any distance along its line and may land on any free square beyond the piece it captures. That turns the race to promote into the central strategic question of the game — in Brazilian, international and Turkish draughts the first king is often decisive on its own.

Compulsory maximum capture removes your choice at the worst moment

Where American checkers lets you pick whichever capture you prefer, the other three variants force the one that takes the most pieces. That sounds like a bookkeeping detail and is actually a tactical weapon: you can offer a piece knowing your opponent is obliged to take the longer line, and obliged to walk into the reply you prepared. Counting captures before you move is not optional in these variants.

American checkers — guides

The classic 8×8 game most English speakers simply call checkers: men capture forward only, kings move one square, and any available capture will do. It is the variant with the largest body of published theory behind it, and the one our endgame database solves exactly.

Brazilian draughts — guides

The same 8×8 board and the same twelve pieces as American checkers, played under international rules: men capture backward, kings fly, and maximum capture is compulsory. Because nothing about the setup changes, it is the cheapest possible upgrade in difficulty — you already know where everything starts.

International draughts — guides

The tournament standard: a 10×10 board with twenty pieces a side and the full international rules. The extra rows are not decoration — with 40 pieces on the board the opening lasts far longer, sacrifices run deeper, and a single flying king has more open diagonal to work with than on any 8×8 board.

Turkish draughts (dama) — guides

The great outlier. Pieces sit on all sixty-four squares rather than the thirty-two dark ones, they move forward and sideways instead of diagonally, and kings travel like a rook in chess. Nothing you learned about diagonal geometry transfers — which is exactly why it is worth an afternoon.

A reading order that works

Guides are easy to collect and hard to finish. If you want one path rather than a menu, this is the order that gets you playing soundly fastest:

1. How to play checkers — board, movement, jumping, kinging. Twenty minutes.
2. Play three games against the computer on easy. Losing to a rule you have not met yet teaches it better than reading about it.
3. The full rules — this is where the edge cases live: forced captures, what happens when you cannot move, and how games are drawn.
4. Strategy — trading when ahead, controlling the centre, and the traps that end short games.
5. A week of the daily puzzle. Seeing one forced win a day builds the habit of looking for them.
6. Only then openings. Opening theory is the least useful thing to learn first and one of the most useful to learn fifth.

Tools that teach faster than reading

Three things on this site do something a guide cannot: they answer questions about a specific position rather than about the game in general.

• The analysis board — set up any position, or paste a shared one, and the engine tells you the best move and why it is winning. Every position gets its own link, so you can send a friend the exact spot you disagreed about.
• The endgame database — every American checkers position with four pieces or fewer, solved exactly: 6,408,836 of them. Not searched, not estimated — looked up. The longest forced win in the table takes 55 moves, which no timed search would ever find.
• The daily puzzle — 400 positions where red plays and wins by force, one a day, plus a training mode that adapts to how you do.

Frequently asked questions

Which draughts variant should a beginner start with?

Start with American checkers. It has the fewest rules to hold in your head: men capture forward only, kings move one square at a time, and you are never forced to find the longest capture. Once jumping and kinging feel automatic, Brazilian draughts is the natural next step — the same board and the same pieces, but with backward captures, flying kings and compulsory maximum capture.

What is the difference between checkers and draughts?

They are the same family of games under two names. "Checkers" is the American word and usually means the 8×8 game with forward-only captures and short-range kings. "Draughts" is the British word and is also the umbrella term used for the whole family, including the 10×10 international game. So every game on this site is draughts, but only one of them is what an American player calls checkers.

Do you have to capture in checkers?

Yes, in all four variants on this site. If a capture is available you must play one — the engine will not even offer you a quiet move. The variants differ in whether you must play the longest capture. American checkers lets you pick any capture you like; Brazilian, international and Turkish draughts all enforce compulsory maximum capture, so if one sequence takes three pieces and another takes two, the three-piece sequence is your only legal choice.

Can checkers pieces capture backwards?

It depends on the variant, and this is the single rule beginners get wrong most often. In American checkers an uncrowned man never captures backwards — only kings do. In Brazilian and international draughts men capture in all four diagonal directions, which makes short combinations far sharper. Turkish draughts is different again: men move and capture forward and sideways, never backwards and never diagonally.

Do I need an account to read the guides or play?

No. Every guide is free to read with no signup, and you can play against the computer or against a friend through an invite link as a guest. An account only becomes useful if you want your Elo rating and game history to follow you to another browser or device.

Brazilian draughts

The same 8×8 board with international rules — men capture backward, kings fly, and maximum capture is compulsory. A tactical step up.

International draughts

The tournament standard: a 10×10 board with 20 pieces per side and the full international rules — flying kings, backward captures and compulsory maximum capture. The deepest of the three.

Turkish draughts (dama)

The great outlier: an 8×8 game on ALL squares where pieces move orthogonally — forward and sideways — and kings fly like a rook. Unlike anything in the diagonal games.

Ready to play?

Reading gets you started; playing makes it stick. Every mode on Checkers Arena is free with no signup — the computer opponent on three levels, an invite link that puts a friend on the other side of the board in one click, and rated games against whoever is in the lobby. All four variants, one board.

Or jump straight into Brazilian draughts vs the computer, or set up a position on the analysis board.