Forcing captures: give up a man, take more back
Capture is compulsory, so an offered man can decide your opponent's next move. Four engine-checked shots, one per rule set, and how to spot one at the board.
Capture is compulsory in all four rule sets on this site. When a capture exists, the legal list holds nothing else, so the player has no other move to make. That rule is also a weapon. Offer a man in the right place and you have chosen your opponent's next move for them.
A line that gives up material to force a reply and then takes more back is called a shot. The four example positions below have White to move, one per rule set. The engine's puzzle extractor accepts each of them, the same check the puzzles on this site pass: its search has to find one first move clearly ahead of every other, and the gain has to hold against the best reply it can find.
American checkers: pull a man into line
Follow the diagonal from 32 up to 5. Black men stand on 18 and 9, each with an empty square behind it, so a man coming up that line could jump them both. What White lacks is a first jump: the next square up that line from 32 holds White's own man, on 27.
27-24 fixes that. The man steps beside the black man on 20, and by leaving 27 it empties the square behind itself. Black must capture, and no other black man touches a white man, so 20x27 is forced. That capture lands on 27, directly in front of the man on 32, with 23 empty behind it. Now 32x23x14x5 takes all three black men and ends the game, one man given for three.
The choice of offer matters. White's other offer, 27-23, is taken by the man on 18, the very man the chain needs, and the result is one man for one.
Brazilian draughts: make the biggest capture the only capture
White's man on b6 touches the black man on c5 but cannot jump it, because White's own man stands on d4. The offer a3-b4 gets that man out of the way.
Black can reach other captures, of the men on b6, b4 and d4, but each of those takes one man. a5xe5 takes b4 and then d4, and Brazilian rules make the biggest capture compulsory. So Black has to clear d4 for White, and its man stops on e5, where it becomes the next stepping stone. b6xd8 jumps c5, e5 and e7 and stops on the king row, so it is crowned. White ends with a king against one man.
International draughts: the reply opens the door
The black man on 32 stands right in front of White's man on 37, but 28 behind it is occupied, so there is no jump. The man on 28 is the guard, and the idea is to make it leave.
The most pieces rule chooses for Black again, and it chooses the one man Black needed to keep still. Once 28 is empty, 37x8 goes through: over 32 to 28, over 22 to 17, over 12 to 8. White has given two men and taken three, and leads by two men to one.
Russian draughts: a crown in the middle of the move
Russian rules have no most pieces rule. As in American checkers, a player may choose freely among captures, so a forcing move has to leave just one capture or work against them all. After d6-e7 only the man on f8 can take, and f8:d6 lands on the square the white man has just left.
That empties f8, the square behind the man on g7. White's man on h6 jumps g7, lands on the king row and is crowned at once, then carries on as a king in the same move: over d6, stopping on a3 because only from there can the capture go on, and over b2 to c1. That one move is h6:c1, and Black has no pieces left.
How to look for a shot at the board
Three questions cover every position above, and you can ask them on any move.
- Which enemy men have an empty square behind them? Those can be jumped. Two on one diagonal with gaps between them, like 18 and 9 in the American position, are a chain that only needs a first jump.
- Which enemy man is safe only because of what stands behind it? The man on c5 was safe because of White's own man on d4, the man on 32 because of the man on 28, the man on g7 because of the man on f8. For every forced reply you can think of, ask what it vacates.
- Which of my men can I offer, and who has to take it? Follow the capture to its landing square, then count what comes off on each side.
Then read your opponent's whole list of captures, not only the one you want. Under American and Russian rules they may take any of them. Under Brazilian and International rules they must take the most pieces, and may choose only among equals.
Making sure you are not walking into one
The same questions protect you. 15-18 leaves nothing hanging, since no white man can capture after it. But look at what it leaves the way your opponent will. The man on 18 now lines up with the man on 9, each with an empty square behind it, and the man on 20 can be dragged to 27 by an offer. Black has built the whole shot with its own move.
So before you let go of a piece, ask the same questions about your own men in the position your move leaves. Which have empty squares behind them? If a man is offered, which of them must take it, where does it land, and what does it vacate? If the answers lead to a chain of jumps, choose another move.
To train the habit, open puzzles, choose the Combination theme and find the winning line. Then try it for real against a computer opponent on the play page.