Thai Draughts

Thai Draughts

Known locally as Makhos (หมากฮอส), this is Thailand’s national draughts variant. Distinguished by fewer starting pieces (8 instead of 12) and a unique king capture restriction: flying kings must land on the square immediately behind the captured piece rather than choosing any square beyond it.

Setup

Board: 8×8 checkered board, dark squares only.

Pieces: 8 men per player. Place on the dark squares of the two nearest rows only (not three). Four empty rows separate the armies.

First move: White moves first.

Rules

• Men movement: Men move diagonally forward only, one square at a time.
• Men capture: Men capture diagonally forward only by jumping. Men cannot capture backwards.
• Mandatory capture: Captures are compulsory.
• Free choice: When multiple captures exist, the player may freely choose (no majority rule).
• Immediate removal: Captured pieces are removed immediately.

King Promotion

• Flying kings: Kings move any number of unoccupied squares diagonally in any direction.
• King capture restriction: When a king captures, it MUST stop on the square immediately behind the captured piece. It cannot choose a farther landing square along the diagonal. This is the defining rule of Thai Draughts.
• King multi-capture: After landing behind a captured piece, if another capture is available from that square, the king must continue.
• Promotion rule: A man reaching the back row is promoted. If it reaches the back row during a multi-jump, the sequence ends and it is promoted.

Winning

A player wins when their opponent has no legal move: all pieces captured or all pieces blocked.

Strategy

The reduced piece count (8 vs 12) means the opening is less congested and tactical play begins immediately. The king capture restriction is the key strategic element: flying kings cannot leap over a piece and land far away for positional advantage. This makes king vs king endgames more drawn-out and defensive, since kings cannot reposition freely after capturing.

Attribution

Traditional variant (Makhos / หมากฮอส). Public domain. Source: Wikipedia (CC-BY-SA).