Board games

Draughts against the computer, free in your browser, on a computer or a phone. There are two games here on the same 8×8 board, each with its own rules, and five difficulty levels in each, from a gentle beginner to an opponent that punishes every loose piece.

Two games on one board

Draughts is played all over the world, and almost every country has settled on slightly different rules. The differences look small on paper, but they change how the game is played.

• Dama Italiana follows the Italian rules. A man may never capture a king, a king moves one square at a time, and when several captures are possible you must take the one worth most.
• Checkers follows the English rules. A man may jump a king, capture is compulsory but you choose which capture to make, and the king also moves one square at a time.

If you learned draughts in Italy, start with Dama Italiana. If you learned it from an English-language rulebook, start with Checkers. If you learned neither, play one, then the other: each game page sets out its rules in full, and reading both side by side is the quickest way to see how much a single rule changes.

Playing the computer

Each game has five levels. The lowest leaves you room to learn how captures chain together. The highest looks much further ahead and gives very little away. Moving up a level when you start winning comfortably is the best way to improve.

Why draughts is worth learning

Board games like draughts have been played for centuries because they are simple to start and slow to master. The rules fit on a single page, there is no luck in them at all, and every loss can be traced back to a move you could have played differently. That makes it as good on a phone during a break as at a desk.