Play Portuguese Checkers

How to Play Portuguese Checkers

Portuguese Checkers (Damas) is played on an 8×8 board with 12 pieces per side. White moves first. It is Portugal's branch of the Spanish family of checkers — the same forward-only men and flying kings played across Iberia since the 16th century. The rules here follow the official rulebook of the Portuguese federation, the Federação Portuguesa de Damas (FPD).

Rules

• Men move and capture diagonally forward only — no backward captures
• Capturing is mandatory, and you must take the line that captures the most pieces
• When two capture lines take the same number of pieces, you must take the one that captures more kings
• A man that reaches the far row mid-capture stops there and crowns
• Kings are "flying" — they move and capture any distance along a diagonal
• The board is mirrored: the double corner sits on each player's left

Winning

Capture all opponent pieces, or leave them with no legal moves.

You can also play against a real opponent: hit Play Online to be paired with another player, or create a private game and share the link or code with a friend. No account needed.

Portuguese Checkers is a close cousin of the Spanish game, and a more distant relative of American Checkers — see how the whole family relates in our guide to checkers variants.

Want to get better? Read our Portuguese Checkers strategy guide, or browse every strategy lesson.