Checkers vs International Draughts: What Is the Difference?

“Checkers” and “draughts” are often used as two names for one game. In fact there is a whole family of related games, and the two we offer sit at opposite ends of it: the 8 × 8 game most people learn as children, and the 10 × 10 international game played in clubs and championships.

If you know one, you can learn the other in five minutes — as long as you know what changes.

The board and the pieces

• Checkers: an 8 × 8 board, 12 pieces each, played on the 32 dark squares.
• International draughts: a 10 × 10 board, 20 pieces each, played on the 50 dark squares.

Capturing backwards

In checkers an ordinary piece moves forward and captures forward; only a king goes backwards. In international draughts an ordinary piece still moves forward only, but it may capture in any diagonal direction — including backwards.

This is the change that catches checkers players out. A piece you thought was safely behind the enemy line can be taken by the very piece it just passed.

Which capture you must make

Both games make capturing compulsory, and in both a chain of jumps must be finished. The difference is the choice. In checkers, if two captures are available you may take either. In international draughts you must take the one that removes the most pieces.

That single rule creates the game’s famous combinations: you give up one piece, your opponent is forced to take it, and the position that results obliges them — or allows you — to make a long chain.

Kings

A checkers king moves one square at a time, in any diagonal direction. Useful, but still a slow piece.

A draughts king “flies”: it moves any distance along an open diagonal, and it can capture a piece from far away, landing on any empty square beyond it. One flying king can dominate the long diagonals of the whole board, which is why the race to crown first matters so much more.

How the games feel

Checkers is tight and positional. With few pieces and slow kings, games are often decided by one extra piece or by who has the last free move.

International draughts is bigger and more tactical. There is more room to manoeuvre, more pieces to build formations with, and sudden multi-piece captures that swing a game in one turn.

Which should you play?

If you want a quick, familiar game, start with checkers. If you enjoy calculating and like the idea of a move that takes four pieces at once, try draughts. Either way the computer works out which captures are legal, so you can learn the differences by playing.

In short: Bigger board, backward captures, most-pieces rule, flying kings — four changes that make international draughts a different game.