Ukrainian draughts (shashki) rules
Shashki is the 8×8 game played across Ukraine. At first sight it is international draughts on the small board - men capture backwards and kings fly - but two rules change how it plays: you may choose any capture, not the longest, and a man that reaches the far row in the middle of a capture carries on jumping as a king.
The board and the men
Twelve men a side in three rows, on the dark squares of an 8×8 board turned so that each player has a dark square in the left-hand corner nearest them - the same setup as English checkers. Light moves first.
How men move
One square diagonally forward onto an empty square. A man never moves backwards - but it does capture backwards.
Capturing: compulsory, but your choice
A man captures by jumping an adjacent enemy piece and landing on the empty square just beyond it, forwards or backwards, on any of the four diagonals. If the piece can jump again from where it lands, it carries on, and the whole chain is one move.
Capturing is compulsory: while any capture exists, an ordinary move is illegal. Unlike international or Brazilian draughts, though, you are not obliged to take the most pieces. When several captures are on offer you play whichever you like - a one-piece jump is legal even while a three-piece chain is available elsewhere on the board.
Jumped pieces stay on the board until the whole move is finished, so a piece cannot be jumped twice, and a piece already jumped still blocks the rest of the chain.
Kings, and promotion in the middle of a capture
A man that reaches the far row is crowned. What sets shashki apart is when: a man that lands on the far row in the middle of a capture becomes a king on the spot, and if it can capture again it carries on - as a king, with the king's reach. In international and Brazilian draughts the same man would finish the chain as a man; in English and Spanish rules the move would end there.
A king slides any distance along a free diagonal, in any of the four directions, 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.
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 30 plies - 15 moves each - without a capture and without a man moving.
| Board | 8×8, dark squares only |
|---|---|
| Pieces | 12 men per side, three rows |
| First move | Light |
| Man moves | One square diagonally forward |
| Man captures | All four diagonal directions |
| King | Flying: any distance along a diagonal |
| Capture | Compulsory; any capture, not necessarily the longest |
| Promotion | Mid-capture too, and the new king captures on |
| Draw | Threefold repetition, or 15 moves each without a capture or a man move |
Play it
Play Ukrainian draughtsThe browser version is coming soon - no download, and no account before the first move.