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Capture
Capture is compulsory. The first major difference between Checkers and Draughts is in the mechanics of capture. In Draughts the direction of capture may be both forward and backward.
An important detail concerning promotion has to be addressed. Since men capture by jumping opponent's pieces both forwards and backwards, a situation may arise where a man in the course of a capture visits the backrank without ending its move on it.
Be it first established that completing the capture has priority!
- In order to promote, a man must end its move on a square of the back rank
- If a man, in the course of a capture, visits a square of the back rank without ending its move on it, it does not promote!
The mechanics of capture are as follows:
- If a man is on a particular line, and next to it on that line is a square occupied by an opponent's piece, then the man captures the piece by jumping over it to the square immediately beyond, which must be vacant for the capture to take place. If the man can proceed in a similar way in another direction, except a 180 degrees turn, it must do so, taking care beforehand to establish the route that brings the maximum number of captured pieces. A captured king counts as one piece.
If there are more than one way to meet this criterion, the player is free to choose.
The second major difference will also turn out to have major impact: the king is a long range piece!
- A king looks along open lines. If it sees, at any distance, an opponent's piece and immediately beyond one or more subsequent vacant squares, it captures by jumping the piece and landing on one of these squares.
A king is subject to the same rules regarding majority capture: if it can proceed in a similar way in another direction, except a 180 degrees turn, it must do so, taking care beforehand to establish the route that brings maximum number of captured pieces. A captured king counts as one piece.
If there are more than one way to meet this criterion, the player is free to choose.
The expression "...it captures by jumping the piece and landing on one of these squares", does not necessarily imply choice. In fact, during the capture the king will usually have no choice because it is subject to majority capture. After jumping the last piece it may have choice where to land.
In the Arena one can choose between regular draughts and a variant called 'KillerDraughts' that has the same rules, except that a king in a capture, if the last piece it must capture is also a king, must end it's capture on the square immediately behind this king. This is a 'means to an end' rule that results in a win in a two against one kings endgame! |
- After - and only after - a multiple capture has taken its complete course, the captured pieces are removed from play.
- In the course of a multiple capture a piece may visit the same square more than once, but it may not capture the same piece more than once.
Both rules are illustrated simultaneously in the 'Coup Turc'.
- The game may end in a draw by 3-fold or mutual agreement.
Coup Turc
Here's a combination to illustrate the implications of the rule that the capture must be completed before the captured men are taken from the board and the rule that a piece may not be captured twice.
The principle is known as a 'Coup Turc' or 'turkish capture'.
Black's got them lined up all right. Can he move de3?
If the man on h5 were on g5, this would mean suicide, but surely there's no danger now?
Or is there?
no Sound - Flip board | ||
to move
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Coup Turc - can black move de3? Sure he can!
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Traditional | Diagonal | |||||
1 | 31-37 | 1 | de3 | |||
2 | 32-28 | 37x46 | 2 | e45 | e31x | King |
3 | 28-23 | 46x19 | 3 | e56 | e17x | |
4 | 29-23 | 19x29 | 4 | fe6 | e7f6x | Turkish capture! The man on f4, though already captured, still covers the man on f5, and the man on e6, already captured, blocks the king. |
5 | 33x22 | 5 | f6d5x |