How it plays
Each player starts with twelve pieces on the dark squares of an eight by eight board. A piece moves one square diagonally forward. To capture, jump an enemy piece that is next to yours into the empty square behind it, and keep jumping with the same piece while you can.
- A capture is never optional. If you can jump, you have to; if several jumps are open, you choose.
- Kings. A piece that reaches the far row is crowned and then moves and captures backwards as well as forwards. Crowning ends the move.
- Winning. Take every enemy piece, or leave your opponent with no move. Eighty moves with no capture or piece moved forward is a draw.
Two ways to play
The room's creator picks the game before the first move. American is the eight by eight game described above. International is played on ten by ten with twenty pieces a side, and is stricter and more open: pieces may also capture backwards, a king slides any distance along a diagonal, you must take the line that captures the most pieces, and a piece that only passes the far row in the middle of a capture is crowned only if the move ends there. In International the side playing along the bottom moves first, and fifty moves with no capture or piece moved forward is a draw.
What a room adds
- Round after round. A room keeps its two players and a running score, and the colours swap each round.
- Rematch by agreement. A new round starts when both players ask for one.
- Spectators. Anyone else who opens the room's link watches the match.
- No stalling. You can resign a round, and claim it if your opponent leaves.
It plays on a phone as well as a desktop: press a piece, then the square to move it to. The squares are numbered from one, as in draughts notation. Open a room and send the link to a friend.