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Russian column checkers on an 8×8 board: a capture takes only the top piece of an enemy column and slides it under yours, while the pieces beneath stay on the square and go free. Climb a ladder of computer rivals.
Tap one of your glowing light columns, then a green dot to move it there. In a jump chain tap each landing square in turn; as soon as only one way is left, the rest of the chain plays itself. Orange glow means a capture is compulsory this turn.
The game uses the 32 dark squares of an 8×8 board. You have 12 light men at the bottom and move first; the rival has 12 crimson men at the top. A man steps one square diagonally forward. A man captures by jumping an enemy column that touches it diagonally, forward or backward, onto the empty square just behind it. If any capture is possible you must take one, and a jump chain must go on while it can, but you may choose any chain, not only the longest. Within one move a square can be jumped only once, and a square you have already jumped cannot be crossed or landed on again.
Nothing is ever removed from the board. A square holds a column, and only its top piece counts: the owner of the top moves the whole column, and the top's rank decides how it moves. A capture takes only the top piece of the jumped column and slides it under the bottom of the capturing column as a prisoner. Everything that was below it stays on the square, now led by the next piece down, which may belong to either side. The small number on a column is its height.
A man that reaches the far row becomes a king, shown with a gold crown. If that happens in the middle of a capture, it carries on capturing as a king in the same move. Kings fly: they move any distance along a free diagonal and capture an enemy column at any distance, landing on any free square behind it. If some of those landing squares let the capture continue, the king must land on one of them. Rank belongs to the piece, so a king buried in a column is still a king if it is ever freed.
You lose when you have no legal move. After 250 turns in all, or 50 turns in a row with no capture and no man move, the game is a draw, and a draw ends your run just like a loss. Each win sends you to a stronger rival: rivals 1 to 7 look 1 to 7 turns ahead and play a random move 30%, 15%, 7%, 3%, 1% and then 0% of the time. From rival 8 you start one man short (your back row empties first), and one more each level, so at rival 19 you would have no men and a run can never pass 18 wins. Your score is wins × 10000 plus a speed bonus of 9999 minus your average thinking time per won game, counted in tenths of a second (never below zero). The clock runs only on your own turns, from the moment it becomes your move until you make it, and it keeps running if you leave the page.
Judge a column by what sits under its top, not by its height. A column you lead with your own pieces directly beneath is armoured: the rival can take the top, but the next piece is yours again and you still control the square. A column you lead that sits on crimson prisoners is the opposite, one jump away from handing them all back. Before you capture, look at what you are stacking: taking a piece onto a column full of enemy prisoners makes that column a bigger target, while taking onto a column of your own pieces makes it nearly unbreakable.
Men capture backward, so a man that has slipped past you is never safe from behind, and neither is yours. Compulsory capture is the main weapon. Offer a single cheap piece where the forced reply drags the rival's column onto a square you can jump at once, ideally a column that has your own pieces buried in it, because taking its top sets them free under your control. Count both ends of every exchange: what you take and what the jump releases on the square you leave behind.
Flying kings change everything once they appear. A king on a long open diagonal attacks the whole board, and the rule that a king must land where the capture continues can be used to steer an enemy king into a square you have prepared. Promoting a man in the middle of a chain keeps the chain going as a king, so a man two rows from promotion with an enemy piece to jump is a real threat. Capturing the top of an enemy king column buries that king under you; if your column is later taken, it comes back out as a king.
If you have played Lasca, the smaller seven-by-seven game also on this site, expect a sharper game here: men capture backward, kings fly instead of stepping, and a promotion does not stop a capture. For the score, wins come first and your own clock second: the speed bonus only counts the time you spend on your turns, so the rival's thinking never costs you, but a careless quick move that loses the game costs far more than any bonus. Draws end the run, so when the no-progress counter climbs, move a man: a man move resets it to zero.