---
title: Thai Draughts
slug: thai
board: "8×8"
players: "2"
parent: draughts
order: 14
win: Capture or block all opponent pieces
special: Only 8 pieces per side. Flying kings must stop immediately behind captured piece. Forward-only men.
engine:
  topology:
    type: grid
    rows: 8
    cols: 8
  players: [white, black]
  setup: "b1b1b1b1/1b1b1b1b/8/8/8/8/w1w1w1w1/1w1w1w1w"
---

## 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.

{{svg:thai-board.svg "Thai Draughts — starting position"}}

### 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).