Beginner Tutorial: Your First Game

Before move one

Sit down at a 10×10 board. Put White's 20 pieces on squares 31–50 and Black's 20 pieces on 1–20, leaving 21–30 empty. Double-check that each player has a dark square in their bottom-left corner — if not, rotate the board 90°. White goes first. Throughout this tutorial I will assume you are playing White.

In International Draughts, the 50 playing squares are numbered 1–50 following a standard board diagram in which Black is shown at the top and White at the bottom. Square 1 is at the top-left of the diagram (the leftmost dark square on Black's back row), and numbering runs left-to-right, top-to-bottom, ending at square 50 on White's back row. This numbering matters: every book, every online game, every tournament record uses it. I'll mention a few square numbers below, but you don't need to memorise anything yet.

Move 1: choose a direction

Your first move sets the tone. The two main choices are 32–28 (a piece from the middle of your fourth row stepping into the centre) or 33–29 (the same idea, shifted one file). Most openings you will ever encounter begin with one of these. Play 32–28. You have just occupied a central square, and you are threatening to advance further.

Black will likely mirror you with 18–23 or 19–23, contesting the centre. Good — that is what you want. The game has started.

The first capture: recognising the jump

A few moves later, imagine the following: your piece is on square 28, and a black piece has advanced to square 23. The square 19 (diagonally behind the black piece from your perspective) is empty. You have a capture. You lift your piece from 28, jump over the black 23, and land on 19. The black piece is removed from the board.

Three rules to burn in now:

• Captures are mandatory. If the jump exists, you must play it. You cannot just shuffle a different piece.
• Captures can go backwards. Men cannot walk backwards for a quiet move, but they can jump backwards as part of a capture.
• Keep jumping. If after landing on 19 you can immediately capture another piece, you must continue in the same turn.

The majority rule in action

Suppose later in the game you have two captures available: one takes a single piece, the other takes three in a chain. You have no choice — the three-piece chain is mandatory. Even if the single-piece capture looks like a better position afterwards, the rule is absolute. This is why good players think about sacrifices: offering a piece the opponent must take often forces them into a long chain that leaves their back rank undefended.

Reaching the back row

Push a man to the opposite back row and end your turn there. That man becomes a king. Stack a captured piece on top of it, or flip it over.

A king is a different animal. It can slide any number of squares along a diagonal, in any of the four diagonal directions, including backwards. When it captures, it can start its jump from far away and land far past the captured piece — anywhere on the diagonal past the enemy, as long as the path is clear. One king is often worth three men, sometimes more.

Important trap: if your piece reaches the back row as part of a capture sequence and another jump is still available, it does not promote. It remains a man and continues the chain. Promotion only happens when the piece actually ends its turn on the back row.

The endgame: two kings vs. one king

You have two kings; your opponent has one. The practical task is to stop the lone king from shuttling freely between diagonals. Use one king to restrict space and the other to cut off the escape squares. In tournament rules there is a special 5-move count once this reduced ending is reached, so random checking is not enough: your kings must cooperate immediately.

Winning: what to look for

You win the game when your opponent has no legal move. That usually happens in one of two ways: you capture all their pieces, or you block the pieces they have left so none of them can move. A frozen opponent with three pieces left is still a loss for them.

After your first game

Don't worry about "good" moves yet. Your first ten games are about pattern recognition: seeing the captures, seeing threats, not hanging pieces for free. Once the mechanics are automatic, the real game — which is 90% about forcing the opponent into a capture they don't want — begins.