How to play Brazilian draughts

The rules of Brazilian draughts with diagrams: White moves first, men capture backwards, the biggest capture is compulsory, kings fly, and the draw counts in full.

Brazilian draughts packs long-range rules into the 8×8 board. Men capture backwards as well as forwards, kings fly along open diagonals, and when you have several captures you must take the one that removes the most pieces. If the board refuses a capture you expected to make, that last rule is the first thing to check. The diagrams are example positions, with White at the bottom.

Setting up

The board has 32 dark squares, each named by a letter and a number: files a to h from White's left, ranks 1 to 8 from White's side. Each side has twelve men, White on ranks 1 to 3 and Black on ranks 6 to 8. White moves first.

The starting position, White to move. Only the men on the third rank can move, which gives seven first moves, from a3-b4 to g3-h4.

Men

A man steps one square diagonally forward onto an empty square. When it captures it may go forwards or backwards, jumping a neighbouring enemy piece and landing on the empty square just beyond.

White to move: d4xb2 is the only legal move. The black man on c3 is behind the white man, capture is compulsory, and so the man jumps backwards.

The most pieces rule

Capture is compulsory, and a capture must be finished: while the piece can jump again, it goes on. Among all the captures on offer you must choose one that takes the largest number of pieces. A king counts as one piece, the same as a man, so taking kings earns nothing extra. If several routes take the same number, you choose freely. Before you pick up a piece, follow every route to its end and count.

White to move: d2xb8 is the only legal move. Three men beat two kings, because the count is of pieces, so the route over e3 and g5 is not allowed. This route also ends on the far row, so the man is crowned on b8.

Flying kings

A man that ends its move on the far row is crowned, White on rank 8 and Black on rank 1. A king moves any distance along an open diagonal, in any direction.

The king on d4 has 13 moves, because the two diagonals through it are open to the edge of the board in all four directions.

A king also captures from a distance, crossing one enemy piece with a free square behind it and landing on any free square beyond. There is one condition: if one of those landing squares lets the capture go on, the king must stop on a square that does.

The king on a1 takes c3, and the squares from d4 to h8 are all free, but only e5 lets it go on to take f4. So it must stop there, and the only legal moves are a1xg3 and a1xh2.

Touching the far row is not enough

A man that reaches the far row in the middle of a capture and has to go on stays a man. It is crowned only if the move ends there.

White's only move is f6xb6. The man touches d8 on the way, but it must go on over c7, so it finishes on b6 as a man.

The Turkish strike

Jumped pieces stay on the board until the whole move is over. Until then none can be jumped a second time, and each one still blocks the way. The Brazilian rules name this Tema Turco, the Turkish strike, and it can stop a king short of a piece that looks free for the taking.

White must take d4, g5 and g3, so the only moves are a1xf2 and a1xe1. From f2 the man on c5 looks open, but d4 stays on the board until the move ends and blocks the way, so c5 survives.

How a game ends

The side to move loses if it has no pieces left or no legal move. A draw can be proposed with Offer a draw. The other draws follow the CBD official rules. Nobody has to claim them: the game ends and the panel gives the reason.

Repetition. The same pieces on the same squares, with the same side to move, for the third time.
Twenty moves. Twenty successive king moves by each player, with no capture and no man moved. A capture or a man move restarts this count.
Five moves in small endings. Two kings against two kings, two kings against a king, two kings against a king and a man, a king against a king, or a king against a king and a man: five moves each.
Five moves on the long diagonal. Three kings, two kings and a man, or a king and two men against a lone king that is the only piece on the long diagonal, from a1 to h8: five moves each.

In the two five-move rules, a man move or a capture does not restart the count, which runs through the whole stretch of those endings. A win reached on the last counted move beats the draw.

Three white kings against a black king on d4, the only piece on the long diagonal. While that stays true the game is drawn after five moves each. If the lone king is off the diagonal, only the twenty-move count applies.

Writing the moves

A quiet move, one that captures nothing, joins the names of its two squares with a dash, as in c3-d4, and a capture uses an x, as in d4xb2. A multiple capture writes only its start and end, so f6xb6 does not mention d8. Landing squares are added only when two legal captures share a start and an end but take different pieces. The notation page has more examples.

The Brazilian lessons put these rules on a board, and you can play under them as soon as you like. International draughts has the same capture and crowning rules on a 10×10 board.