Streak
0
Best
-
The old Moorish and Spanish jumping game that draughts grew out of. Twelve pieces each fill a 5×5 board of lines with only the centre empty; jump over enemy pieces to take them, chain several jumps in one turn, and win by clearing or blocking the computer's side.
Tap one of your light pieces, then tap a ringed point to move it there. When a capture takes several jumps, tap each landing point in turn; the pieces you are jumping are outlined in red. You move first, and then you and the computer take turns.
The board is 25 points joined by lines. Every point is joined to its neighbours across and up and down; half the points — the ones where the diagonal lines cross — are also joined diagonally. You start with 12 pieces on the two bottom rows and the two right-hand points of the middle row; the computer's dark pieces fill the mirror image at the top, so only the centre is empty.
A plain move takes a piece one step along a line to an empty point: forwards, diagonally forwards or sideways, but never backwards. To capture, jump over an enemy piece next to you along a line onto the empty point straight beyond it; captures may go in any direction, backwards too. If the same piece can jump again from where it lands, it must keep going, so one turn can take several pieces. Capturing is compulsory — when any capture is possible you may not make a plain move — but if there are several captures you may choose which.
You win when the computer has no pieces left or cannot make a legal move on its turn, and lose the same way. If 40 plies (20 moves each) pass without a capture, the game stops and the side with more pieces wins; equal pieces is a draw. A win adds one to your streak, while a loss or a draw ends it. The computer reads deeper and blunders less as your streak grows.
Because captures are compulsory, you can steer your opponent. Offering one piece where it must be taken often drags the capturing piece onto a point from which you can jump two or three of its neighbours in reply. Before every move, ask what the computer will be forced to do next, not just what it might like to do — and check the same thing for yourself, because the computer sets these traps too.
A piece can only be jumped if the point behind it is empty, so pieces standing in a line protect each other from the front. Advance in pairs and keep the point behind each forward piece covered. The points where the diagonals cross are worth more than the others: a piece there has up to eight directions to move and attack, while a piece on an orthogonal-only point has at most four.
Pieces never move backwards except when capturing, and a piece that reaches the far row can only slide sideways. Don't rush everything forward: keep some pieces at home so you still have moves to spare later, because in the endgame the side that runs out of safe moves is often forced to step into a capture — or loses outright for having no move at all.
Watch the counter of plies without a capture. When you are ahead in pieces, quiet play is on your side: after 40 plies with no capture the game ends and the larger army wins. When you are behind, you must force exchanges before the counter runs out, or the game is already lost.