AfriDama

How to play

AfriDama uses English draughts, also called American checkers, on an 8×8 board. Each side starts with 12 pieces on the dark squares.

Moving

• Red moves first. Gold is the opposing light side.
• An uncrowned piece moves one square diagonally forward.
• A king moves one square diagonally forward or backward. Kings do not fly across the board.

Capturing

• Jump over an adjacent enemy piece onto the empty square beyond. Uncrowned pieces capture forward only; kings capture in any diagonal direction.
• Captures are compulsory. If any of your pieces can capture, you must capture. Glowing pieces show which ones can.
• If several capture routes exist you may choose any of them. You do not have to take the most pieces.
• Once a piece starts jumping it must keep jumping until no capture remains. Tap each landing square in turn.

Crowning

• A piece that reaches the far row is crowned as a king. Kings show a crown and a second cap stacked underneath.
• Crowning ends the turn, even in the middle of a capture sequence. The new king cannot keep jumping backward that turn.

Winning and draws

• You lose when it is your turn and you have no pieces or no legal move.
• Draw by repetition: the same position occurs three times with the same player to move.
• Draw by no progress: 40 turns each pass with no capture and no uncrowned piece moving.
• In two-player mode either player can offer a draw, and the other player can accept it.

Casual adaptations

Tournament rules generally expect a player or referee to claim a repetition or 40-move draw. AfriDama declares these draws automatically for convenience. Undo is a casual-play feature and is not part of tournament rules. Rules reference: WCDF English draughts rules (reproduced by the North Carolina Checkers Association).

Controls

• Tap or click a glowing piece, then a highlighted square. Rings mark capture landings.
• Keyboard: arrow keys move between dark squares, Enter or Space selects, Escape cancels a selection.
• Saved progress stays in this browser on this device. It does not follow you to other devices.

About the look

The bottle-cap pieces nod to games played with caps on handmade boards. The courtyard backdrop is inspired by Nubian architecture of the Nile Valley. It is not meant to represent any single country or every African tradition.