Play international draughts online on 9qum for free, right in your browser on a phone or a computer. International draughts, also called 10×10 checkers or Polish draughts, are played on a 100-square board with 20 pieces per side, so games run longer and deeper than Russian draughts on 8×8. You only need a free sign-up that takes a minute.
Practise against the computer at four levels: Novice, Amateur, Strong and Master. Start with Novice while you get used to the majority capture rule, and move up once you start winning. For a human opponent, play rated games online: international draughts have their own Glicko-2 rating. To play a friend, send an invite link, and if you are together, two players can share one screen.
The pieces start on the dark squares of the first four rows, and White moves first. A man moves one square diagonally forward and captures both forwards and backwards. Capturing is compulsory, and the majority rule applies: if there are several ways to capture, you must choose the one that takes the most pieces, with kings and men counting the same.
Kings are flying: they move and capture any distance along a diagonal. A man is crowned only if it ends its move on the far row; if it passes through that row during a capture and keeps capturing, it stays a man. Captured pieces are removed after the move, and you may not jump the same piece twice. You lose when you have no pieces or no legal moves.
The game is drawn on threefold repetition, after 25 moves by each side with only kings and no captures, and in some endings against a lone king: against three pieces including a king after 16 moves, against two pieces with a king or a single king after 5 moves.
Draughts on the large 10×10 board took shape in France in the 18th century, and some countries still call the game Polish draughts. Today the rules are kept by the World Draughts Federation (FMJD), founded in 1947, which runs the world championships. The game is especially popular in the Netherlands, in many African countries, and in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
The dark squares are numbered from 1 to 50, so moves are written with numbers: 32-28 is a quiet move and 28x19 is a capture. You will see this notation in the game record.
Hold the centre: pieces on central squares are more mobile and get in your opponent's way. Avoid lone pieces and keep them connected, so that each one is protected by a neighbour. Remember the majority rule: your opponent can give away a piece to force you to capture in a chosen direction and then reply with a capture through several of your pieces at once. Before every move, check which captures you are giving your opponent.
Every game is saved in your history, so you can replay it move by move. You can also run tournaments in international draughts. The site works in English, Russian and Kazakh, and there is an Android app on Google Play.
To learn international draughts from scratch, open the Learn section: a 14-step course on a live board covers the rules, the first tactics and how to win. To train your calculation there are Puzzles: 50 positions where you look for the best move and the board checks your answer at once.
In Play with a coach mode the coach rates each of your moves as best, excellent, good, inaccuracy, mistake or blunder. After a blunder the game pauses, the coach shows the threat and lets you take the move back, and you get three hints per game.
Game analysis lets you play moves for both sides, set up your own position and ask the AI for advice. Games against the computer are saved in your history.
The board is 10×10 instead of 8×8, each side has 20 pieces instead of 12, and the majority rule says you must capture the most pieces possible. A man that passes the far row during a capture is not crowned. Russian draughts on 8×8 are also on 9qum as a separate game.
Yes. Playing the computer at all four levels, playing people online, inviting a friend by link and playing on one screen are all free.
Yes, a free sign-up that takes a minute. Your account keeps your rating and game history.
That is move notation. The dark squares are numbered from 1 to 50, starting from the top left dark square on Black's side. A dash marks a quiet move and an x marks a capture.
Yes. Create a game, send the invite link, and the game starts as soon as your friend opens it.
International draughts rules · Learn draughts with a coach
Togyz Kumalak · Chess · Russian Draughts · Corners · Bestemshe · Mangala · Oware · All games