Jamaican Draughts Rules in Draughts World

A familiar yard game, written down

Jamaican draughts is the default game in Draughts World. This page explains the exact rules the app enforces, so you can tell the difference between a house habit and the rules on screen.

Board and pieces

The game is played on an 8x8 board using only the dark squares. Each player starts with 12 pieces on the dark squares of their three nearest rows.

Board orientation matters here. The long diagonal of dark squares runs from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner as the board is shown. If you set up a physical board at home to practise, check this diagonal first; with the board turned the wrong way, every position looks mirrored.

Moving and capturing

Men move one square diagonally forward. Men capture diagonally both forward and backward by jumping an adjacent enemy piece onto the empty square behind it.

Capturing is compulsory, and once a piece starts capturing it must finish the chain you choose. Jamaican draughts in this app has no rule forcing you to take the largest number of pieces: if two different captures are available, you may choose either one, even the shorter.

• Practical point: since you can choose, look at where each capture leaves your piece, not only how many pieces it removes.

Flying kings and the landing rule

Kings fly: they move any distance along an open diagonal, and capture a piece at a distance by landing on an empty square beyond it.

There is one important detail. After a king jumps a piece, there may be several empty squares it could land on beyond that same captured piece. If at least one of those landing squares lets the king continue capturing, the king must choose such a square. It cannot stop short on a square that ends the chain when a continuing landing exists after that same victim.

This is not a global longest-capture rule. You are still free to choose which first capture to make; the requirement applies only to the landing square after each piece you jump.

Crowning after the chain ends

In Jamaican draughts, promotion is deferred. A man that passes through the far row in the middle of a capture chain does not become a king at that moment; it continues capturing as a man.

Only where the chain finishes counts. If the man finishes its move on the far row, it is crowned. If the chain carries it back off the far row and it ends elsewhere, it stays a man.

• Example: your man jumps onto the far row, and from there a backward jump is available. You must take it, and because the move ends away from the far row, the piece is still a man.

Opening options

You can start from the standard position, or choose Random to begin from a randomly selected legal four-half-move Jamaican opening. Random openings are useful practice because they push you out of memorised first moves.

Tips for Jamaican games

• Because shorter captures are allowed, you can often refuse a big capture that would leave your piece stranded. Use that freedom.
• Watch your men near the far row during exchanges. A capture chain that bounces back out leaves you without the king you expected.
• When you have a king, scan every landing square beyond each piece you could jump. The app will hold you to the continuing landing.
• Keep the double corner area defended; it is a common refuge for a king late in the game.