Rules of Spanish Draughts

Spanish Draughts or Spanish Checkers are probably the oldest checkers game that is still popular. This board game for two players is very popular in the Iberian Peninsula, in North Africa and in numerous countries of South and Central America.

Game board and pieces

The game takes place on a board with 64 squares of alternating colours. However, the players are using only the white squares.

Each player has 12 pieces, white for one and black for the other, which are initially placed in the three first rows of the board. The player with the white pieces starts the game.

Movements and captures

The movements are always performed diagonally. Normal pieces (so called "men") usually advance only one square forward and cannot go back. You can capture by jumping over an opponent's piece and landing on the next square, which must be free, while the opponent's piece is removed from the board.

It is possible to make multiple captures, as long as the same piece can continue to jump over other opponent's pieces from the last square.

Kings

Men transform into "kings" upon reaching the last row of the board. Kings have special moves:

• They can also move backwards.
• They can move by jumping over several empty squares on the diagonal.
• They can capture an opponent's piece by jumping one or more squares, as long as there is only one opponent's piece on their route and the other squares are empty.

Mandatory captures

Whenever possible, it is mandatory to make a capture movement.

If there are several capture options, the following rules are followed:

• Quantity rule: as many pieces should be captured as possible.
• Quality rule: when choosing between capture moves that capture the same amount of pieces, as many kings as possible should be captured.

End of the game

The winner is the player who captures all the opponent's pieces. The player who blocks the opponent's remaining pieces also wins.

The game ends in a draw if the following happens:

• By agreement between both players.
• The same position occurs for the third time, with the same moves.
• 40 successive movements of kings (20 on each side) are performed without any capture.
• One of the players has three kings, one of them on the main diagonal (8 squares), against a single king, and does not reach victory in 13 moves.

Challenge your mind and test your strategy on the board! Play and win!