KINGMAKER

Goal

Capture all your opponents' pieces, or leave them with no legal moves. Last player standing wins.

Movement

Pieces move diagonally on dark squares only, always moving forward toward the opponent's side. In most variants men move one square at a time — flying king rules change this (see below).

Captures

Jump diagonally over an adjacent enemy piece to the empty square beyond — that piece is removed. If another jump is available from your landing square, you must keep jumping in the same turn.

⚠ Captures are forced — if you can jump, you must jump.

Kings ♛

Reach your opponent's back row to be promoted to a King. Kings can move and capture in all four diagonal directions.

Flying Kings — in International, Russian, and Surge rules, kings are not limited to one square. They slide any distance along a diagonal and can land anywhere past a captured piece.

2-Player Variants

English — the classic game. 8×8 board, 12 pieces each. Men move and capture forward only. Kings move one square in any diagonal direction.

International — 10×10 board, 20 pieces each. Flying kings. Men capture in all four diagonal directions (backward too). You must always capture the maximum number of pieces possible in one turn.

Russian — 8×8, flying kings, backward captures for men. If a man reaches the back rank during a multi-jump, it promotes to a king immediately and continues jumping as a king in the same turn.

Surge ⚡ — Russian rules as the base, plus two new ways to become a king:

• Valor Promotion — capture 2 or more pieces in one turn and your man becomes a king on the spot, wherever it lands. The new king immediately continues jumping as a flying king.
• Kingslayer — jump an enemy king and your man is promoted instantly, even if it was your only capture. Then keep jumping as a flying king.

⚡ Kings are both more powerful and more dangerous to own — an enemy man anywhere within reach is a kingslayer waiting to happen.

4-Player Mode

12×12 board. Four players — Red, Dark, Blue, and Gold — start from each edge with 9 pieces. You king your pieces by reaching the opposite player's starting zone. Last colour standing wins.

Three rule options:

• Standard — classic rules, men move forward only, kings move one square
• Flying — kings slide any distance diagonally
• Surge ⚡ — flying kings + backward captures for men + Valor + Kingslayer

Capture Countdown ⏱

Every player has 30 moves to make a capture. The ⏱ timer appears in the footer when 10 or fewer moves remain. Hit zero without capturing and your weakest piece is removed as a penalty — then the count resets.

In-Game UI

• Header centre — game mode, board size & rule variant
• Header right — piece count per player (coloured dots)
• Footer centre — whose turn it is (dot matches player colour)
• Footer left — capture countdown (appears when ≤ 10 remain)
• Green glow — pieces you can move this turn
• Orange glow — a piece that must capture (forced jump)

AI Difficulty

• Casual — plays mostly at random, loosely prefers captures
• Normal — plans 4 moves ahead
• Hard — plans 7 moves ahead with full alpha-beta pruning
• The Learner — starts at Hard and grows stronger every game, biasing future moves toward positions it has won from before. Progress is saved across sessions.