Spanish checkers rules
Spanish checkers - damas españolas - sits between the English and international games. The board is 8×8 and men still move only forwards, but kings fly the length of a diagonal and captures are governed by two laws rather than one.
The board and the men
Twelve men a side in three rows, on an 8×8 board turned the Spanish way: each player has a playing square in the right-hand corner nearest them, the mirror of the English setup. It changes nothing about the rules and everything about diagrams copied from an English book.
How men move
One square diagonally forward onto an empty square. A man never moves backwards, and - unlike the international game - never captures backwards either.
The two capture laws
Capturing is compulsory. When more than one capture is available, Spanish rules narrow the choice twice:
- Ley de la cantidad - the law of quantity. You must play a sequence that takes the greatest number of pieces.
- Ley de la calidad - the law of quality. Among the sequences that take the same greatest number, you must play one that takes the most enemy kings.
Both laws are about which pieces are taken, never about which piece does the taking. The rule that a king must do the capturing whenever a king and a man could take the same number belongs to Italian draughts, and it does not apply here: with the counts equal, the choice of capturing piece is yours.
Men capture forwards only; kings capture along the diagonal in all four directions. A chain continues while the piece that landed can jump again, and jumped pieces stay on the board until the whole move is finished, so a piece cannot be jumped twice.
Kings
A man that ends its move on the far row is crowned. Promotion ends the turn: a man that reaches the far row in the middle of a capture stops there, even if the new king would have another jump - the same rule as English checkers, and the opposite of the international one.
A king slides any distance along a free diagonal, and captures at a distance: it jumps a single enemy piece with any number of empty squares before it, and lands on any free square beyond, choosing where to stop.
Winning and drawing
You win by capturing every enemy piece or by leaving your opponent with no legal move. A draw comes from the third occurrence of the same position with the same player to move, or from 100 plies without progress - a capture, a promotion, or a man advancing a rank.
| Board | 8×8, Spanish orientation |
|---|---|
| Pieces | 12 men per side, three rows |
| First move | Light |
| Man moves | One square diagonally forward |
| Man captures | Forward only |
| King | Flying: any distance along a diagonal |
| Capture | Compulsory; most pieces, then most kings |
| Promotion | Ends the turn, including mid-capture |
| Draw | Threefold repetition, or 100 plies without progress |
Play it
Play Spanish checkersIt opens in the browser - no download, and no account before the first move.