Draughts

Classic board game

Gustave Courbet The Draughts Players 1844

Draughts in the Little Golem app

Variants

On Little Golem is played several variants.

English Draughts

English draughts, also called checkers or straight checkers, is played on an 8x8 board with 12 men per side. Only the dark squares are used. Black moves first on Little Golem.

Men move one square diagonally forward to an empty square. Men capture by jumping diagonally forward over an adjacent enemy piece to the empty square beyond it. Kings move one square diagonally in any direction and capture one square in any diagonal direction.

Capturing is compulsory. If several captures are available, Little Golem allows any capturing line in English draughts; the maximum-capture rule is not applied to this variant. Multiple jumps are made in one move when the same piece can continue capturing.

A man that reaches the far row is promoted to a king. A player loses when they have no legal move left.

For English Draughts Championship tournaments on Little Golem, games use random three-move openings from the official tournament deck. Other tournaments and ordinary games use GAYP, “go as you please”.

International draughts

International draughts is played on a 10x10 board with 20 men per side. Only the dark squares are used. White moves first on Little Golem.

Men move one square diagonally forward to an empty square. Men capture diagonally forward or backward by jumping over one adjacent enemy piece to the empty square beyond it.

Kings are flying kings: they move any distance diagonally through empty squares. They capture by jumping over one enemy piece on a diagonal and landing on any empty square beyond it on the same diagonal.

Capturing is compulsory. When more than one capture is possible, Little Golem requires a line that captures the maximum number of pieces. A man promotes when it reaches the far row. A player loses when they have no legal move left.

Dameo

Dameo is an abstract strategy board game for two players invented by Christian Freeling in 2000. It is a variant of the game draughts (or checkers) and is played on an 8×8 checkered gameboard.

Dameo is played on an 8×8 checkerboard with 18 pieces per player. Each player’s pieces are arranged so that the bottom three rows, from the perspective of the player, are filled from a1 to h1, b2 to g2, and c3 to f3, forming a distinctive trapezoid shape.

dameo

  • White moves first on Little Golem.
  • Men move forward, either straight ahead or diagonally forward.
  • A line of adjacent friendly men may make a linear move: the rear man moves along the line to the first empty square beyond the friendly line.
  • Captures are orthogonal only. A man captures one square forward, backward, or sideways by jumping an adjacent enemy piece.
  • Kings move any distance in eight directions. Kings capture orthogonally by a long jump over one enemy piece to an empty square beyond it.
  • Capturing is compulsory. Little Golem allows any legal capturing line in Dameo; it does not filter to maximum captures in the same way as International draughts.
  • Captured pieces are removed at the end of the move. The same enemy piece may not be captured twice in one move.
  • A man promotes when it reaches the far row. A player loses when they have no legal move left.

Last modified July 9, 2026: document remaining game rules (fd82652)