Rules of Pool Checkers

Pool Checkers, also called "American Pool", is a variant of checkers (draughts) played mainly in the Mid-Atlantic region, in the southeastern United States and in Puerto Rico. This board gamefor two persons challenges the players' strategy by requiring mandatory captures and prioritizing moves that allow kings to continue to jump.

Game board and pieces

Pool checkers is played on a board of 64 alternating black and white squares. The player should verify that the square in the lower right corner of his side of the board is white.

Each player has 12 pieces, white for one and black for the other,that are placed at the start of the game in the three bottom rows of the board occupying the black squares. The player with the black pieces is the one who starts the game.

Movements and captures

Pieces are moved diagonally one square forward, but captures can be made both forwards and backwards. If two capture options are available, the player can choose the sequence to follow, even if one of the options requires more jumps.

Captured pieces are not removed from the board until all jumps of a sequence have been completed. In addition, a player cannot capture an opponent's piece more than once in the same sequence of moves, nor can they capture their own pieces.

Kings

Normal pieces, so called men, become kings only when their move ends in the last row. If a piece reaches the last row during a capture move, but continues jumping back, it does not become a king.

A king can jump any number of squares both forwards and backwards, and it has the ability to change direction after a jump, continuing on another path after the capture of the opponent's piece. In Addition a king must perform as many jumps as possible during a sequence. If one player has three kings and the other only one, the player with all three must win in a maximum of 13 moves, even if the fourteenth move is a capture.

Mandatory captures

If it is possible to make a capture, it has to be done, although it does not necessarily have to be the one that allows capturing the highest number of pieces. When a king jumps over an opponent's piece and there are several squares available for landing, priority is given to the squares from which it is possible to continue jumping.

End of the game

The player who captures all the opponent's pieces wins.The game ends in a draw if a mutual agreement is reached or if 25 successive moves are made without advancing any man nor doing any capture.