5 ways to win quickly at Brazilian Draughts!

To win a checkers’ game quickly, you have to gain an advantage. You can achieve superiority on a board by attacking the opponent's pieces, making shots, creating possibilities for an 'opposition', freezing your rival, and earning a king. Watch the video lesson to learn how to execute all of these plays.

#1 Make a shot!

As you already know, one of the basic rules of checkers says: Capture is mandatory! We have also clarified it in our previous articles. Let's learn how to use this principle to our advantage.

We must sacrifice a certain number of pieces in order to collect more pawns from our opponent. This tactical play is called "combination" or "shot". It is the fastest and most effective way to win checkers games.

Let's take a look at the diagrams below on how to carry out such a shot!

Step 1: Sacrifice the first pawn, followed by a capturing

Step 2: Black captures, thus creating a so-called "hole" in the c5 field. White sacrifices another piece

Step 3: Black is forced to capture and white takes 3 dark pawns

#2 Use the flying king to your own advantage!

Unlike American checkers, the king in Brazilian Draughts is distinguished  by a "long capture". It is wise to use this principle to our advantage!

Let's look at the diagram below on how to carry out the combination using the opponent's king.

Step 1: We sacrifice a first piece, ergo black is forced to capture to the king

Step 2: Then, we sacrifice another piece, and the black king has to capture on g5

Step 3: White captures 2 pawns to the king and cuts off all black pieces

This rule is very beneficial and practical in the game. Check all the possibilities of giving your pawns to the king, as such a position may happen to you!

#3 Use the possibility of backward capturing!

As you already know, beating backward in American checkers is not possible. In Brazilian rules, it is! Therefore, we can prepare a combination that will include this element. 

Step 1: Sacrifice a first piece, black has to capture

Step 2:  Now, we sacrifice another piece, using our border column (3 pieces in a row)

Step 3: White captures 3 pieces backward and is very close to winning the game

#4 Make a “sacrifice” and win!

Making a sacrifice in checkers is one of the most difficult parts, as we usually try to "protect" our material as much as possible. However ,there are situations when we have a completely winning position after sacrificing a pawn.. Let's examine two examples of such sacrifices.

Example 1 - Sacrifice in a position 4 against 4 pieces

Step 1: White sacrifices a piece; black is forced to capture

Step 2: Now, white can block 3 black pawns by playing to the corner

Step 3: It’s easy to see that black has no good moves. Anywhere it plays, it gets captured (marked with red arrows)

Step 4: Black offers 2 pawns and plays the last possible move

Step 5: The only task for white is to stop this by creating so-called “opposition”

As you can see, black plays to h4 and then white blocks them by playing to f4. The position is ultimately winning.

Example 2: 4 white pieces vs. 2 black pieces and 1 black king

Let’s study the example below. It seems the position should be easily winning for black (they have a king!), but nothing could be further from the truth! 

White has a beautiful double sacrifice here.

Step 1: White sacrifices the 1st pawn

Step 2: White sacrifices the 2nd piece

Step 3: Black is forced to capture, and white plays with the g1 piece (no matter where)

Black is completely blocked.

Although black has a king, there is no way to move it.

#5 “Majority capture” rule

Last but not least - remember to use the Majority rule! This rule is crucial in Brazilian and International Draughts, as it forces your opponent to capture the largest amount of pieces.

It’s very helpful in making different types of shots. Let’s see an example.

Step 1: Black attacks the white piece on the field d2

Step 2: White offers 2 pieces

Step 3: Black cannot capture 1 piece to the king

Step 4: Black has to capture the majority - 2 pieces

Step 5: Now, white can capture 6 black pawns

Step 6: The advantage is already to great. In the next moves, white can even sacrifice one piece and block black’s only pawn

Have you found our tips useful? We certainly hope so! If you manage to implement all the rules into your daily game, you will definitely see progress quickly! Enjoy!