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Frosted Board

Puzzle #29: Draughts

  • DifficultyHard
  • To moveLight
  • TaskWin in 5
  • Main line9 half-moves

Light to move. Dark has 0 men and 2 kings, Light 2 men and 2 kings.

Win within 5 moves: at the end the opponent has no pieces left or no legal move, whatever they try.

What the position is about

  • sacrifice — A piece is given up on purpose: the forced capture pulls the opponent onto the square you need.
  • kings on the board — At least one king is on the board, so pieces can come back as well as go forward.

Finding the way in

In the longer wins look at the squares the defending king can still reach and take them away one by one before you go for the capture.

Before you touch a piece, list every forcing move you have and every threat the opponent has; the answer is almost always on that short list.

Show the first move

Start with 11x2. Played out against the stiffest resistance, the whole line goes: 11x2 27-32 18-14 32-28 31-27 28-32 23-18 32x23 18x27.

Solve it and the next puzzle of the same game is one tap away. Your solved puzzles are ticked in the list, in this browser only.