Czech draughts


Czech draughts is a board game played in the territory formerly occupied by the Czechoslovak Republic. It is governed by the Czech Draughts Federation.

Game rules

The draughtsboard has eight ranks and eight files. Players each have twelve draughtsmen on opposite sides of the board, arranged on black squares only, in three rows. Men move one square diagonally forward. Once a man has reached the furthest rank of the board from the owning player, it becomes a king. Kings move diagonally forward or backward any number of positions.
A player who cannot move, either because he has lost all of his pieces, or because no legal move remains, has lost. The game is a draw when it is theoretically impossible to capture any of the opponent's pieces.

Capture rules

A misere game, as with other competitions, is known, where the object is to lose all one's pieces.

Regional differences

Although Czech draughts is itself a regional variant of the draughts game, the version played in the Slovak Republic is slightly different in that each player begins with only two ranks of men, and that the huffing rule is enforced: if a piece that must capture does not do so, the opponent may, at his option, take it before his own move. Furthermore, if a player has no legal moves, but does have men on the board, the game is a draw. This variant is played only in Slovakia and probably by the children.