International draughts (also called Polish draughts or international checkers) is a board game

Board game

A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

, one of the variants of draughts

Draughts

Draughts is a group of abstract strategy board games between two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over the enemy's pieces. Draughts developed from alquerque...

. It is played on a 10×10 board with alternatingly dark and light squares, of which only the 50 dark ones are used. There are two players on opposite sides, with 20 pieces each, light for one player and dark for the other. In conventional diagrams the board is displayed with the light pieces at the bottom and dark at the top and in this orientation the lower-left corner square must be dark.

The World Draughts Federation

World Draughts Federation

The FMJD is the international body uniting national draughts federations. It was founded in 1947 by four Federations: France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland....

 maintains a ranking. the men's list is headed by Ton Sijbrands

Ton Sijbrands

Teunis Sijbrands is a famous Dutch player of international draughts who became world champion in 1972 and remained so in 1973 after he successfully defended his title against Andris Andreiko...

 from the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, followed by Alexander Georgiev

Alexander Georgiev

Alexander Sergeyevich Georgiev is a draughts player who won the world championship in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2011. He is considered to be among the best living players of the game.-External links:*...

 from Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and Alexander Schwarzman

Alexander Schwarzman

Alexander Schwarzman is an international grandmaster international draughts with Russian nationality. He is known for his creative playing style, especially his positional sacrifices and his high number of elegant games involving encirclements...

 from Russia, while at the women's site Darya Tkachenko

Darya Tkachenko

Darya Tkachenko is a Ukrainian draughts player, FMJD Grand Master, multiple times World champion in international draughts and two-times European champion in international draughts ....

 from the Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 is in the lead, closely followed by Tatjana Chub from the Netherlands and Zoja Golubeva

Zoja Golubeva

Zoja Golubeva is a Belarussian/Latvian draughts player and current draughts Women's World Champion. She was Women's World Champion in 1986, 1988, 1990–1992, and 1994 to 2000. She became 12 time champion after winning the Championships again in 2010...

 from Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

.

Rules

The general rule is that all moves and captures are made diagonally. All references to squares refer to the dark squares only. The main differences with English draughts

English draughts

English draughts or checkers , also called American checkers or straight checkers or in Israel damka, is a form of draughts board game. Unlike international draughts, it is played on an eight by eight squared board with twelve pieces on each side...

 are the size of the board (10×10) and the rule that pieces can also capture backward, not only forward.

Starting position

• The game is played on a board with 10×10 squares, alternatingly dark and light. The left down square field should be dark.
• Each player has 20 pieces. At the starting position (see picture) the pieces are placed on the first 4 rows closest to the players. This leaves two rows in the middle empty.

Moves and captures

• The player with the light pieces makes the first move. The two players make moves alternately.
• Ordinary pieces move forward one square diagonally to a field that is not occupied by another piece.
• Opposing pieces can and must be captured by jumping over the opposing piece, two squares. If one has the possibility to capture a piece then this must be done even if it is disadvantageous.
  • If there is one unoccupied square before or behind opposing pieces then jumps multiple times over opposing pieces in a single turn forward or backward can and must be made, making angles of 90 degrees. It is compulsory to jump over as many pieces as possible. One must play with the piece that can make the maximum captures.
  • After the piece has jumped over the opponents piece or pieces, the jumped over pieces are taken from the board. The men are not removed during the jump, only after the whole move.

Crowning

• A piece is crowned if it stops on the far edge of the board at the end of its turn (that is, not if it reaches the edge but must then jump another piece backward). Another piece is placed on top of it to mark it. Crowned pieces, sometimes called kings, can move freely multiple steps in any direction and may jump over and hence capture an opponent piece some distance away and choose where to stop afterwards, but must still capture the maximum number of pieces possible. A popular variation in the Netherlands gives captures by crowned pieces priority over captures by ordinary pieces.

Winning and draws

• A player with no valid move remaining loses. This is the case if the player either has no pieces left or if a player's pieces are obstructed from making a legal move by the pieces of the opponent.

• A game is a draw if neither opponent has the possibility to win the game.

• The game is considered a draw when the same position repeats itself for the third time (not necessarily consecutive), with the same player having the move.

• A one king against one king endgame is automatically declared a draw, as is any other position proven to be a draw.

These are extra rules accommodated in some tournaments and may vary:

• If, during 25 moves, there were only king movements, without piece movements or jumps, the game is considered a draw.
• If there are only three kings, two kings and a piece, or a king and two pieces against a king, the game will be considered a draw after the two players have each played 16 turns. http://www.ffjd.fr/Web/site/technique/regle-jeu.php?mzc=4

Notation

Each of the fifty dark squares has a number (1 through 50). http://www.damweb.nl/tech/notatie.htm Number 46 is at the left corner seen from the player with the light pieces. Number 5 is at the left corner seen from the player with the dark pieces.

Computers

Computer draughts programs have been improving every year. Programmers wrote the first draughts programs in the mid 1970s. The first computer draughts tournament was in 1987. In 1993, computer draughts program Truus ranked about 40th in the word. In 2003 computer Draughts program Buggy beat world number 8 Samb. In 2005, the 10-time world champion and 2005 World champion, Alexei Chizhov

Alexei Chizhov

Alexei Chizhov is a Russian who has been the ten-time world champion in international draughts. His first world champion title was in 1988 and his most recent was in 2005. He has won more world championships than any player since Isidore Weiss almost a century ago. In 2003 he headed the World...

, commented about computers. Chizhov said he could not beat the computer, but he also would not lose to the computer. Since 2005, the top computers gained over 200 points. There has not been a human versus computer draughts tournament after 2005. In 2010, the 9 piece endgame database was built.