How to play Russian Checkers: rules and strategy

Russian Checkers, called shashki in Russian, looks like ordinary checkers but plays very differently. Men capture backwards, kings fly across the board and a single move can sweep away half a dozen pieces. This guide covers the complete rules, then the ideas that win games.

Learn Russian Checkers step by step

Learn Russian Checkers (shashki) from scratch: moving, capturing backwards, flying kings, crowning mid-capture and the Turkish strike, then the combinations and endgames that win games.

Learn Russian Checkers step by step14 hands-on lessons, unlock as you go, then rated games.

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Rules: How Russian Checkers works

The board, moving, capturing both ways, flying kings and how you win.

1. 1The Russian Checkers board and how to set it up
2. 2How the men move in Russian Checkers
3. 3Capturing backwards in Russian Checkers
4. 4Multiple captures in Russian Checkers
5. 5Flying kings in Russian Checkers
6. 6Crowning in the middle of a capture
7. 7The Turkish strike rule
8. 8How to win at Russian Checkers

Rules check

Five questions on every rule. Pass to unlock combinations.

1. 9Russian Checkers rules quiz

Strategy: Combinations

Forcing captures, safe pieces and trapping kings.

1. 10The two-for-one shot in Russian Checkers
2. 11Watch your back: don’t leave pieces hanging
3. 12Luring a flying king into a trap

Strategy: Endgames

The race to the first king and the main road.

1. 13Racing for the first king
2. 14The main road: the most important diagonal

Practice ladder

Beat each bot to climb. Every ladder game counts towards your BGS Rating, which starts at 800.

1. 15Penny · 600Just learned the moves. Walks into captures.
2. 16Mira · 900Steady player. Spots the simple combinations.
3. 17The Monocle · 1200Reads long captures ahead. Loves a flying king.

The board and the pieces

Russian Checkers is played on an 8×8 board, on the 32 dark squares only. The board is placed so that each player has a dark square in their bottom-left corner. Each player starts with 12 men on the dark squares of the three rows nearest them; the two middle rows start empty. Traditionally White moves first. On BoardGameSite gold plays the part of White. Against the computer you can play either side, and your pieces always start at the bottom of the screen.

Squares are named like a chess board: files a to h from left to right, ranks 1 to 8 from the bottom. The long diagonal from a1 to h8 is called the main road (bolshak).

How pieces move

Players take turns moving one piece. A man moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. Men never step backwards.

Capturing

If an opponent’s piece is diagonally next to yours and the square straight beyond it is empty, you capture it by jumping over it. Unlike American checkers, a man can capture in all four directions, backwards as well as forwards.

• Captures are compulsory. If any capture is available, you must take one.
• Free choice between captures. If you have several captures, you may choose any of them. You don’t have to take the one that wins the most pieces (in International draughts you do; in Russian you don’t).
• Finish what you start. Once a piece starts capturing, it must keep jumping while it can, changing direction as needed.
• The Turkish strike. Captured pieces are removed only when the whole move is over. A piece can’t be jumped twice, and a piece you’ve already jumped stays in the way until the move ends. Strong players set traps that use this rule to stop a long capture halfway.

Kings

A man that reaches the far row becomes a king (damka). Russian kings are flying kings:

• A king moves any number of empty squares along a diagonal, forwards or backwards, like a bishop in chess.
• A king captures an enemy piece at any distance along a diagonal, as long as the squares between are empty and there is at least one empty square beyond it. It can land on any of the empty squares beyond.
• If one of those landing squares lets the king capture again, it must land there and keep going.

If a man reaches the far row in the middle of a capture and can capture again from there, it is crowned at once and carries on capturing as a king in the same move. This is one of the biggest differences from American checkers, where the move stops on the crowning square.

Winning, losing and draws

You win when your opponent can’t move: either all their pieces have been captured, or every piece they have left is blocked.

The game is a draw if the players agree, if the same position comes up three times with the same player to move, or if for 15 moves in a row both players move only kings without capturing anything. BoardGameSite applies the last two rules automatically.

Strategy: the opening

Take the centre. The squares c5, d4, e5 and f4 are the heart of the board. Pieces there support each other and restrict your opponent’s moves.

Develop in groups. Because men can be captured from behind, a piece that runs ahead on its own is easy prey. Advance in pairs and triangles, so every piece has a neighbour covering the square behind it.

Keep your back row for a while. Your back-row pieces stop enemy men from crowning. The pieces on c1 and e1 are especially useful defenders; move them late.

Strategy: the middle game

Look for combinations. Compulsory capture means you can give away one or two pieces to force your opponent’s men onto squares where you then take three or four, or get a king. Before every move, check every capture it allows and what follows.

Remember backward captures. Both sides can capture backwards, so a piece that has slipped past your opponent’s men can still take them from behind, and so can theirs.

Race for the first king. A flying king is worth about three men. Getting the first king, especially one that lands on the main road, often wins the game outright.

Strategy: the endgame

Control the main road. In king endings the long a1–h8 diagonal is crucial. With three kings against one, you can usually win, but only if the lone king doesn’t hold the main road. If it does, the game is normally a draw.

Use the Turkish strike to trap kings. Offer pieces in a line so that an enemy king’s capture is blocked by a piece it has just jumped, leaving it stranded where you can take it.

Trade when you’re ahead. As in all draughts games, swapping one for one makes a lead bigger.

Common beginner mistakes

• Forgetting that men capture backwards and leaving a piece open from behind.
• Letting the opponent crown first and lose control of the long diagonals.
• Underestimating how far a flying king can reach in one move.
• Grabbing a free piece without checking the forced reply.
• Stopping a capture early: if more captures are possible, the move must continue.

Russian Checkers words to know

• Shashki: the Russian name for checkers (draughts).
• Damka: a king.
• Flying king: a king that moves and captures any distance along a diagonal.
• Main road (bolshak): the long diagonal from a1 to h8.
• Turkish strike: the rule that jumped pieces stay on the board until the move ends, and the combinations that use it.