How to Play Losing Draughts

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Losing Draughts, also known as Misère Draughts or Suicide Draughts, is a two-player strategy game played on a standard draughts board. It follows almost all the rules of standard draughts, with one crucial reversal: captures are compulsory, and the aim is to get rid of every piece you own rather than to dominate the board.

Players love it because the familiar rules become a psychological trap. Every instinct you have built playing standard draughts works against you here. It is played at kitchen tables, in schools, and at games clubs across the UK as a sharp, fast companion game to the standard version.

A little history

Losing Draughts has been played in Britain and Europe for several centuries, and references to misère or 'give-away' variants of draughts appear in games literature from at least the nineteenth century. Its precise origins are unclear, but the compulsory-capture rule that defines standard draughts made a losing variant a natural and widely adopted inversion. It has never been formally standardised to the same degree as international draughts, so rules can vary by region and household tradition.

Setting up

1. Place the board so that each player has a light square in the bottom-right corner.
2. Each player places their 12 pieces on the dark squares of the three rows nearest to them.
3. The middle two rows remain empty at the start of play.
4. Decide who plays which colour; the player with the dark pieces moves first.

How to play

1. Players alternate turns, moving one piece per turn.
2. Ordinary pieces move diagonally forward only, one square at a time, onto an empty dark square.
3. If you can capture an opponent's piece, you must do so. Capturing is compulsory, not optional.
4. A capture is made by jumping diagonally over an adjacent opponent's piece into the empty square immediately beyond it. The captured piece is removed from the board.
5. If multiple captures are available on your turn, you must take one of them but you may choose which.
6. Multiple captures in a single turn: if after landing you can capture again with the same piece, you must continue jumping until no further capture is possible with that piece.
7. When a piece reaches the far edge of the board (the opponent's back row), it is crowned and becomes a King. Place a second piece on top to mark it.
8. Kings may move diagonally in any direction, forwards or backwards, one square at a time.
9. Kings capture in any diagonal direction using the same jump mechanic as ordinary pieces.
10. A piece is crowned at the end of a move only. If it reaches the back row mid-sequence during a multi-jump, it does not become a King until the full capturing sequence is complete.
11. A player who cannot make a legal move on their turn loses the game (or wins, depending on the variation agreed; see Variations).

Winning and scoring

The winner is the first player to have all their pieces captured or to reach a position where they have no legal move on their turn. Both conditions count as a win for that player. Some households treat the no-legal-move condition as a loss rather than a win; agree the rule before play begins. There is no points scoring in the standard game: each round produces a single winner.

The fine points

The most common dispute is over the compulsory capture rule when more than one capture is available. In Losing Draughts you must capture, but you may freely choose which capturing move to make. You are not obliged to take the largest possible number of pieces in one turn, unless the players have agreed a 'maximum capture' rule before the game. Be explicit about this before play starts.

A second regular argument concerns a piece reaching the back row mid-jump. The standard ruling is that promotion does not occur until the complete move is finished. If the piece lands on the back row at any point during a multi-jump sequence, it does not gain King movement until the sequence ends, and it must continue jumping as an ordinary piece if a further capture is available. A player may not decline a continuation capture simply because they would prefer to have the piece crowned immediately.

How to win more often

• Offer your pieces to be taken whenever you can engineer it: put pieces in positions where your opponent has no choice but to capture them.
• Control the tempo by creating chains of forced captures that strip your board in one sequence rather than one piece at a time.
• Be wary of your Kings. A King is often a liability in Losing Draughts because its greater mobility can make it harder to engineer a forced capture against it.
• Watch your opponent's escape squares: if they have pieces that cannot easily be captured, steer play so those pieces become the last ones standing on their side.

Variations

No-Move Counts as a Loss

In this common household variant, a player who has no legal move on their turn loses rather than wins. This changes end-game calculation significantly, as a player who retains even one immovable piece may find themselves penalised rather than rewarded. Agree this rule explicitly before starting.

Maximum Capture Rule

Players must always take the move that captures the greatest number of opponent pieces in a single turn. Where two moves capture equal numbers, the player may choose freely between them. This rule adds considerable calculation to each turn and is a popular addition in club play.

Give-Away with No Kings

Pieces that reach the back row are simply removed from the board immediately rather than being crowned. This speeds the game up substantially and removes the King liability problem entirely, making it a good choice for younger players.

Pool Losing Draughts

Played over multiple rounds with three or more participants taking turns to play one-on-one matches. Each player starts with a set number of lives and loses one each time they win a round, since winning is losing here. The last player to retain at least one life wins the pool. Scoring systems vary by group, so settle the exact rules before the first round.

Losing Draughts: frequently asked questions