Checkers vs International Checkers: What Changes on the 10×10 Board
International checkers, also known as International Draughts, is the 10×10 cousin of the checkers most Americans grew up with. Same idea (diagonal moves, jumps, kings), but four rules are different enough that a good checkers player sits down at the big board and immediately hangs three pieces.
Here’s the full list of differences, then what they mean in practice. Both games are playable free on this site: regular checkers on our homepage, and the 10×10 game one page over.
| Rule | Checkers (8×8) | International checkers (10×10) |
|---|---|---|
| Board and pieces | 8×8 board, 12 pieces each | 10×10 board, 20 pieces each |
| Who opens | Black | White |
| Can men capture backward? | No | Yes |
| Kings | Step one square at a time | ”Flying”: cover any distance on a diagonal |
| When several captures exist | Take any one you like | Must take the one capturing the most pieces |
| Jumping through the last row | Turn ends, man becomes a king | Man passes through and stays a man unless the jump ends there |
The four differences that actually matter
The bigger board and extra pieces change the scale of the game, but not its nature. Openings take longer, and there’s more room to maneuver on the wings. You’d adjust to that part in a game or two. The real adjustments are these:
Men capture backward. In regular checkers, anything diagonally behind your man is a threat he can never answer. On the 10×10 board, every man covers all four diagonal directions when jumping, so “safe behind enemy lines” stops being a thing. Ambushes come from everywhere.
Kings fly. A crowned piece moves like a chess bishop, any number of squares along a diagonal, and when it captures, it can land on any open square past the piece it jumped. One flying king in an open position can vacuum up half an army in a single chained capture. Getting the first king in international checkers is a much bigger event than it is in checkers.
You must take the most. When multiple capture lines exist, international rules force whichever removes the most enemy pieces, and the count is over the whole chain. This one rewrites tactics completely: players deliberately build positions where the forced biggest capture drags the opponent’s piece onto a doomed square. In regular checkers you pick your poison; here the rulebook picks it for you, and good players weaponize that.
Crowning is stricter. A man whose capture chain passes over the far row keeps jumping as a man and stays uncrowned. Only ending your move on the last row earns the crown. Coming from regular checkers, where touching the back row on a jump crowns you (and stops your turn), this is the difference most likely to trigger an argument, so settle it before you start.
There’s also a bookkeeping difference nobody argues about at home: draws. Regular checkers calls it a draw after 40 moves per side with no capture and no man moved. The international game draws after 25 such king-only moves per side, plus a set of specific endgame limits, like a lone king surviving 16 moves against three pieces. The checkers rules page covers the 8×8 draw law if you want the details on that side.
Which one should you play?
Play regular checkers if you want quick games with anyone, anywhere in the US. It’s the version on every kitchen table and the one your relatives already know. The tactics run deeper than its reputation suggests, and games fit inside a coffee break.
Play international checkers if you want the bigger tactical playground. Flying kings and the maximum-capture rule generate wild multi-piece combinations that the 8×8 game simply can’t. It’s the game governed by the FMJD, the World Draughts Federation, and BoardGameGeek’s checkers pages call it the most widely played form of the game.
Honestly, learn both. They’re close enough that the second one costs you an afternoon.
Trying them is the fast way to decide. You can play international checkers here, two players on one screen or against the computer, with the full rules on the same page. For online matches against live opponents on the 10×10 board, head to International Draughts at Checkers Online, our sister site. And if the comparison itch goes further, Checkers Online also hosts nine more checkers variants, Russian and Canadian among them, each with its own twist on these same rules.
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