Rules
Avlis checkers is played by two people, on opposite sides of a playing board, alternating moves. One player has dark pieces, and the other has light pieces. Pieces move diagonally and pieces of the opponent are captured by jumping over them.
The rules of this variant of draughts are:
- Board The board is an 8×8 grid, with alternating dark and light squares, called a checkerboard. The playable surface that consists of the 32 dark squares only. A consequence of this is that, from each player's perspective, the left and right corners encourage different strategies.
- Pieces There are two kinds of pieces: "men" and "kings".
|
men |
kings
|
| Black (Maleki)
|
|
|
| Red (O'Ma)
|
|
|
| 8
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 7
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 5
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 4
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
a
|
b
|
c
|
d
|
e
|
f
|
g
|
h
|
|
- Starting Position Each player starts with 12 pieces on the three rows closest to their own side, as shown in the diagram. The row closest to each player is called the "crownhead" or "kings row". The black (darker color) side moves first.
- How to Move There are two ways to move a piece: simply sliding a piece diagonally forward to an adjacent and unoccupied dark square, or "jumping" a piece of the opposing player. It is possible for a piece to be "jumped" if on one side there is an opposing piece and the opposite side is vacant. In this case, one piece would "jump over" the other into the vacant square on the opposite side. A piece that is jumped is captured and removed from the board. Multiple-jump moves are possible if when the jumping piece lands there is another opposing piece with a vacant square on the opposite side. Jumping is mandatory and cannot be passed up to make a non-jumping move, nor can fewer than the maximum jumps possible be taken in a multiple-jump move. When there is more than one way for a player to jump, one may choose which sequence to make, not necessarily the sequence that will result in the most amount of captures. However, one must make all the captures in that sequence.
- Kings If a player's piece moves into the kings row on the opposing player's side of the board, that piece is said to be "kinged" and gains the ability to move in both forward and backward directions. If player's piece jumps into the kings row, the move terminates (it cannot jump out (as in a multiple-jump move) until that move has ended and the piece has been kinged).
- How the Game Ends A player wins by capturing all of the opposing player's pieces, or by leaving the opposing player with no legal moves.
- Listing Moves *List recent move at the top!
- ----
| 
