Poddavki is a draughtsgame based on the rules of Russian draughts, main difference from other draughts games is that a player wins if he doesn't have any legal moves on his turn. The game is possible because capturing is mandatory. Played in Russia and some parts of the former USSR.
Rules
Board. Poddavki is played on an 8×8 board with alternating dark and light squares. The left down square field should be dark.
Starting position. Each player starts with 12 pieces on the three rows closest to their own side. The row closest to each player is called the "crownhead" or "kings row". Usually, the colors of the pieces are black and white, but possible use other colors. The player with white pieces moves first.
Pieces. There are two kinds of pieces: "men" and "kings". Kings are differentiated as consisting of two normal pieces of the same color, stacked one on top of the other or by inverted pieces.
Men. Men move forward diagonally to an adjacent unoccupied square.
Kings. If a player's piece moves into the kings row on the opposing player's side of the board, that piece to be "crowned", becoming a "king" and gaining the ability to move back or forvard and choose on which free square at this diagonal to stop.
Capture. If the adjacent square contains an opponent's piece, and the square immediately beyond it is vacant, the opponent's piece may be captured by jumping over it. Jumping can be done forward and backward. Multiple-jump moves are possible if, when the jumping piece lands, there is another piece that can be jumped. Jumping is mandatory and cannot be passed up to make a non-jumping move. When there is more than one way for a player to jump, one may choose which sequence to make, not necessarily the sequence that will result in the most amount of captures. However, one must make all the captures in that sequence. A captured piece is left on the board until all captures in a sequence have been made but cannot be jumped again.
If a man touches the kings row during a capture and can continue a capture, it jumps backwards as a king. The player can choose where to land after the capture.
Winning. A player with no valid move remaining win. This is the case if the player either has no pieces left or if a player's pieces are obstructed from making a legal move by the pieces of the opponent.
Notation
Games and positions are recorded using a special notation – algebraic notation. The vertical columns of squares are labeled from a to h. The horizontal rows of squares are numbered 1 to 8 starting from White's side of the board. Thus each square of the board has a uniqueidentification of file letter followed by rank number.
Move from e3 to d4 are recorded as e3-d4.
Move with capture are recorded as c5:e3.
1. e3-d4 d6-c5 2. g3-f4 c5:e3:g5 3....
Sport
First Russian championships was held in 2011. Next took place annually.
