Use the flying-king rules of Russian checkers
Happy Games uses Russian checkers on an 8×8 board. A regular piece becomes a king on reaching the farthest rank. Kings move diagonally on dark squares and can travel more than one square, forward or backward. If you learned a version in which kings move only one square at a time, this longer reach changes how you read the position.
The diagrams use files a–h from left to right and ranks 1–8 from bottom to top. White is to move in every position. The white piece with a crown is a king; all black pieces shown are ordinary pieces. All unlisted squares are empty. These are teaching positions, not the usual starting arrangement.
Position A: travel along an open diagonal
Place a white king on c3 and a black piece on a7. White has no capture. The king may make the quiet move c3 → f6, passing through the empty d4 and e5 squares. It may also move backward from c3 to a1 through b2. Neither move removes a piece.
A quiet move must follow one straight, open diagonal. A king cannot turn a corner during it, move horizontally, or pass through an occupied square. The distance is flexible; the diagonal and the empty path are not. The black piece on a7 is not on either of these two paths.
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | ||||||||
| 7 |  | |||||||
| 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | ||||||||
| 3 |  | |||||||
| 2 | ||||||||
| 1 |
Position B: one captured piece, three possible landings
Keep the white king on c3 and Black on a7, then add a black piece on e5. The empty d4 square separates the king from that piece. Unlike an ordinary piece, the king can capture from this distance: it travels along the diagonal, passes over e5 and lands beyond it.
The legal landings are f6, g7 and h8. Each move captures the same piece on e5. The king does not have to stop on f6, the first empty square after the captured piece. In this position, none of those three landings offers a further capture, so each is a complete turn. Black's a7 piece remains and the game continues.
White may no longer choose the quiet move c3 → a1 from Position A. When a capture is available anywhere on your side, you must capture. A king's longer reach does not exempt it from that rule. You also cannot land on e5 itself: the landing must be empty and beyond the opposing piece.
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | ||||||||
| 7 | | |||||||
| 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | | |||||||
| 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | | |||||||
| 2 | ||||||||
| 1 |
Position C: the nearest landing requires another capture
Now use a separate position: White has a king on c3, and Black has pieces on e5 and g5. There is no black piece on a7. The first capture still goes over e5, but choosing f6 changes what must happen next.
From f6, the king can capture the black piece on g5 and land on h4. That continuation is compulsory. The complete turn is c3 → f6 → h4, taking e5 and g5. White cannot finish the turn on f6 or switch to another piece halfway through. In this small position, taking both black pieces leaves Black with none, so White wins.
Instead, White may capture e5 and land directly on g7 or h8. From either of those squares, g5 is not on a capture diagonal, and no further capture is available. Each is a complete one-capture turn; g5 remains and play continues.
This is the key distinction: choosing a different complete route is allowed, but stopping an unfinished route is not. Russian checkers in Happy Games does not require the route that captures the most pieces. The two-capture route wins this example, yet the one-capture routes are still legal choices.
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | ||||||||
| 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | | | ||||||
| 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | | |||||||
| 2 | ||||||||
| 1 |
Compare complete routes, not just the first jump
In Position C, the shortest first jump leads to the longest capture sequence. The farther landings finish after taking only e5. A farther destination does not automatically mean more captures, and the first empty square is not automatically the end of a turn.
For each candidate landing, scan all four diagonals for a continuation before deciding where the route ends. Then compare the resulting positions: where is your king, which opposing pieces remain, and whose turn comes next? In a fuller game, those remaining pieces may have a reply that a simple capture count misses.
Keep blockers in the calculation too. Your own piece stops the king's path. You cannot treat an occupied square as a landing or pass over two opposing pieces as a single capture without landing between captures. Every stage needs a legal diagonal and an empty landing beyond the piece being taken.
Try the three questions before your next king move
First: is a capture available to any of your pieces? Second: which empty squares beyond the opponent are legal landings? Third: from each landing, must the same king capture again? In Position B, all three landings finish the turn. In Position C, f6 requires h4, while g7 and h8 finish immediately.
The guided demo below uses ordinary pieces and the route a3 → c5 → e7. It illustrates compulsory continuation, but it is not a replay of these king positions. Use the diagrams above for king landing choices, or open Happy Games in Telegram and choose Checkers to play a full game.