The game is played on the dark squares of a 10x10 checkered board with 20 men each. Its rules differ from anglo-american Draughts/Checkers in that majority capture precedes, men may capture both forward and backward, and the king is a long range piece. These differences make it far more complicated than its traditional predecessor.
The game is very popular in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, several African countries and countries of the former Soviet Union. Players are united in some 60 national federations, under the umbrella of the FMJD, the Federation Mondial du Jeu de Dames, which has its seat in the Netherlands.
International Draws
One ghost that has haunted Draughts in the last decades is its margin of draws, especially in match play. A rough indicator of the nature of the problem is that in Draughts (barring some 10.000 of over 2.500.000 three against one positions) one needs four kings to capture a lone one. Generally speaking: the lone king is too strong in an endgame.
To remedy this, there are several options:
- More emphasis on tournament play
- KillerDraughts
- Dameo
More emphasis on tournament play
I remember two successive worldchampionship matches between Dutch grandmasters Harm Wiersma and the late Jannes van der Wal, in which only one decision was reached in forty games. In both cases, Ton Sijbrands, who covered the games for one of the daily papers, ran out of adjectives to describe the draws - thrilling draws, exciting draws, blood-curdling draws, abysmal dangers allowing only the narrowest of escapes, etc. It became really funny when a journalist put all headers together on the backpage. It showed what everyone except draughts players can see: top level Draughts is as dead as the dodo in match play.
KillerDraughts
KillerDraughts redefines the king's capturing options, stating that a capturing king, if the last piece it captures is also a king, must end its move on the square immediately behind it. In consequence, two kings are sufficient to capture a lone one.
Acceptance of the rule would make sense, but then: draughts players are hooked on opposition - they'll oppose anything. And they are right inasfar as introduction of the rule would affect the significance of existing theory to some degree.
Meanwhile both ways to play draughts are available in the ArenA, each with its own accumulative stats regarding the number of wins/losses and draws. The applets are identical.
Dameo
I consider Dameo to be the most modern and best 'sport weapon' of all draughts variants. The reasons are given in Draughts Dissected and On the Evolution of Draughts Variants.
A point also capable of improvement in international Draughts, is the game's traditional numeric notation system. In the ArenA the alternative diagonal notation system is employed. This alternative notation system has been suggested by the Canadian Draughts player Paul Sonier as early as 1925, and was independently developed for Bushka by Christian Freeling.
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