Frisian draughts rules

Board and starting position

The board has 10×10 squares, and only the dark squares are used. Each player starts with 20 men on the 4 rows nearest to them. White moves first.

How ordinary pieces move

A man moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty square. It never moves backward without capturing.

Compulsory capture

If you can capture, you must.

A man captures forward or backward by jumping over an enemy piece onto the empty square directly behind it, either diagonally or straight along a row or column (over the piece on the next dark square).

If the capturing piece can capture again, it must continue. Captured pieces are removed only after the whole move, and no piece can be jumped twice.

If there is a choice, you must play the sequence of the greatest value. A man is worth one point and a king is worth more than one man but less than two. If values are equal, a capture by a king must be played.

Kings

A man becomes a king only if its move ends on the far row. If it merely passes over that row during a capture and keeps capturing, it stays a man.

A king moves any number of free squares along a diagonal, a row or a column.

A king captures at a distance: it jumps over an enemy piece on its line and may land on any free square behind it. If a landing square allows another capture, the king must choose such a square and continue.

While you still have men, a king may not make more than three non-capturing moves in a row; then another piece must move. This does not apply if you have only kings.

Winning and drawing

• You win when the opponent has no pieces left or cannot make a legal move.
• The game is drawn if the same position occurs three times.
• The game is drawn if 50 moves by each side pass with only kings on the board and no capture.
• With two kings against one king, the stronger side has seven moves to win; otherwise the game is drawn.