Brazilian draughts is played on an 8×8 board, with 12 pieces per side. This guide goes through the rules Damas Evolution uses, one at a time, with a drawing for each.
The drawings show part of the board. For screen reader users, each one has a text description that names squares by letter and number: columns run a, b, c… from left to right, and rows count up from 1 at the bottom.
The board and the pieces
The board has 8 by 8 squares, light and dark. Only the dark ones are used. Turn the board so the dark corner square is at your bottom left.
Each player starts with 12 pieces on the three rows nearest them. In this guide it is red against blue: red starts at the bottom and moves up, blue starts at the top and moves down.
How pieces move
A regular piece moves one square at a time, diagonally forward, onto a dark square that is empty.
It never moves backward. Going back is only possible in a capture (see below).
Capturing
To capture is to jump over an opponent’s piece. It leaves the board.
Capturing is mandatory
If one of your pieces touches an opponent’s piece and the square right behind it is empty, you must jump. You can’t make another move instead.
Backward works too
A regular piece doesn’t move backward, but it does capture backward. If an opponent’s piece is behind you on the diagonal and the square after it is empty, jump.
One capture leads to the next
After a jump, look again from where you landed. If you can capture another piece, you keep going in the same turn, in any direction. The path can zigzag.
The majority rule
When there is more than one way to capture, you must take the one that captures the most pieces. You can’t take one piece if you could have taken two.
If two paths capture the same number of pieces, the choice is yours.
Becoming a king
A piece that stops on the opponent’s last row becomes a king and gets a golden crown. From then on it moves and captures as a king. For red that is the top row; for blue, the bottom one.
The flying king
The king is the strongest piece on the board. It doesn’t move one square: it flies.
As many squares as it wants
A king moves as many squares as it wants along a diagonal, in any direction, as long as the path is clear. It stops before the first piece it meets, yours or the opponent’s.
Capturing from a distance
A king can capture an opponent’s piece even when it is far away, as long as the squares between them are empty. After the jump it may stop on any empty square right behind the captured piece. If it can keep capturing from one of them, the majority rule tells you to go that way.
End of the game
A game ends when someone wins or when it is drawn.
Winning
You win when your opponent has no move left: either all their pieces were captured, or the ones that remain are blocked. You can also abandon a game.
Drawing
If 40 moves in a row pass without progress, the game is drawn. Two kings, one per side, with nothing to capture, tend to end up there.
Now, in practice
Rules are learned by playing. Start against the AI on Easy, or ask someone to play on the same device.
