If two or more men are so placed that one square intervenes between
each they may all be taken at one move. Thus if white having to move has
a man on 28, and black men on 24, 16 and 8, the intermediate squares and
square 3 being vacant, white could move from 28 to 3, touching 19 and 12
en route, and take the men on 24, 16, and 8; but if there is a piece on
7 and square 10 is vacant, the piece on 7 cannot be captured, for
becoming a king ends the move.
It is compulsory to take if possible. If a player can take a man (or a
series of men) but makes a move that does not capture (or does not
capture all that is possible), his adversary may allow the move to
stand, or he may have the move retracted and compel the player to take,
or he may allow the move to stand and remove the piece, that neglected
to capture from the board (called "huffing"). "Huff and move" go
together, i.e. the player who huffs then makes his move. When one player
has lost all his pieces, or has all those left on the board blocked, he
loses the game.
The game is drawn when neither of the players has sufficient advantage
in force or position to enable him to win.
The losing game, or "first off the board," is a form of draughts not
much practised now by expert draught players. The player wins who gets
all his pieces taken first. There is no "huffing"; a player who can take
must do so.
_Draughts Openings._--As there are seven possible first moves, with
seven possible replies to each, or forty-nine in all, there is an
abundant variety of openings; but as two of these (9-14, 21-17 and
10-14, 21-17) are obviously unsound, the number is really reduced to
forty-seven. Much difference of opinion exists regarding the relative
strength of the various openings. It was at one time generally held
that for the black side 11-15 was the best opening move.
Towards the end of the 19th century this view became much modified,
and though 11-15 still remained the favourite, it was recognized that
10-15, 9-14 and 11-16 were little, if at all, inferior; 10-14 and
12-16 were rightly rated as weaker than the four moves named above,
whilst 9-13, the favourite of the "unscientific" player, was found to
be weakest of all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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