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Nigerian draughts rules

The 10×10 game with flying kings, plus 8×8 English draughts, as played in the Surulere Games Lounge. Updated 18 October 2026.

In Nigeria, draughts mostly means the big board: 10×10 squares, 20 pieces each, and kings that fly the length of the board. Capturing is compulsory, jumps chain together, and one good king can turn a game. Here are the rules, plus the 8×8 game for anyone who grew up on the small board.

The board and pieces

Nigerian draughts is played on a 10×10 board, on the dark squares only. The board is turned so the long diagonal, the one dark line from corner to corner, starts at each player's right-hand corner. Each player has 20 pieces (many players call them seeds) on the dark squares of their first four rows.

Draw lots to decide who starts. Whoever starts plays the light pieces. Then you take turns, one move each.

Moving

A piece (a "man") moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. Men never move backwards.

Capturing

• Jump to capture. If an opponent's piece is diagonally in front of your man and the square just beyond it is empty, jump over it to capture it.
• Men capture forwards only. That's the lounge's house rule. Some players let men capture backwards too; in Lagos Hotel they can't.
• Keep jumping. If you land where you can jump again, you must carry on. One move can take several pieces.
• Capturing is compulsory. If any of your pieces can capture, you must capture. But you choose which capture: you don't have to take the most pieces.
• Pieces come off at the end. Jumped pieces leave the board only when your move is finished. You can't jump the same piece twice, and until then it still blocks the way.

Crowning

A man that ends its move on the far row is crowned king.

Kings fly

This is what makes the 10×10 game special. A king can:

• Fly: move any number of empty squares along a diagonal, forwards or backwards.
• Capture from a distance: along a diagonal, jump a single opponent's piece with empty squares beyond it, however far away it is, and land on any of those empty squares.
• Chain captures: if it can capture again from where it lands, it must carry on, changing direction as it goes.

In that position the king could also land on any other empty square beyond the first piece and stop there. Only the square in the picture lets it carry on to a second capture, and either choice is allowed, because you don't have to take the most.

Winning and draws

• Win by capturing all your opponent's pieces, or by blocking them so they have no move. A player who can't move loses.
• Draw: if 25 moves each go by with only kings moving and nothing captured, the game is a draw.

8×8 English draughts

The lounge also has small-board tables. The 8×8 game is the one many people learned first:

• 12 pieces each on the dark squares of the first three rows.
• Draw lots to decide who starts. Whoever starts plays dark: dark moves first.
• Men move and capture forwards only. Capturing is compulsory, you choose which capture, and you keep jumping while you can.
• Kings don't fly. They move and capture one square at a time, forwards or backwards.
• A man that reaches the far row during a capture is crowned, and its move ends there.
• Win by capturing or blocking all your opponent's pieces. 40 moves each with only kings moving and nothing captured is a draw.

Side by side

If you play international draughts, two things are different on the 10×10 tables here: men can't capture backwards, and you don't have to take the most pieces.

Tips to win

• Keep your back row. Pieces on your first row stop your opponent's men from crowning. Move them last.
• Take the centre. Pieces in the middle of the board have more moves and support each other. Pieces on the edge are safe but do little.
• Use compulsory capture against them. Because your opponent must capture, you can give up one piece to drag theirs into a spot where you take two or three back.
• Watch for the same trick on you. Before every move, ask what your opponent will be forced to do, and what you'll be forced to do after.
• Crown early on the big board. A flying king is worth several men. Once you have one, keep it out of trades.
• Mind the long diagonal. An enemy king on it sees the whole board. Don't leave pieces on it with empty squares behind them.

Draughts in Lagos Hotel

• Tap a glowing piece, then the green dots. The pieces that can move light up. For a multiple jump, tap each landing square in turn. You can't make an illegal move by mistake.
• Two kinds of table. The Surulere Games Lounge has two 10×10 Nigerian draughts tables and two 8×8 tables.
• Play with people or the house. Sit down and invite whoever is in the room, or play Coach Kunle, the house champion.
• Play at home. Buy a draughts table from the furniture shop (10×10, kings fly), put it in your apartment and play with your visitors.
• Get on the champions board. Wins against real people count towards today's champions on the lounge wall. Games against the house don't count.