This table uses Alquerque on twenty-five points, not sixty-four squares. Each side starts with twelve pieces and the centre point empty. Black moves first. Pieces travel only along the drawn lines. A jump, when one exists, is mandatory; a multi-jump may turn, but the longest line is not required. Pieces never promote. It is not English draughts and not Chinese checkers. The sections below follow the order a real game actually happens. Read them once, then try a local computer game and take every jump you are required to take.
How you move a piece here
Select one of your pieces that can actually move, then select the empty point it is allowed to reach along a drawn line. If nothing happens, that piece has no legal step, or a jump somewhere on the board is still waiting to be taken.
Quiet steps may not retreat toward your own back rank. They never become backward walking pieces; this reconstruction has no kings.
The lattice and the first move
Twenty-five points, with orthogonal lines, both long diagonals, and the mid-point diamond. Each side begins with twelve pieces: two home ranks filled, plus the two outer points of the middle rank. The very centre stays empty. Black moves, then White, and so on.
Quiet steps and hops
With no jump available, a piece steps to an adjacent empty point along a marked line, never backward. To capture, it hops an adjacent enemy piece along that same line and lands on the empty point immediately beyond. Captured pieces come off at once. If that same piece can hop again from the new point, the turn continues and may change direction.
Before you look two captures ahead, ask the shorter question: can any of your pieces hop something right now? If yes, the next section applies. If not, pick a piece that either advances or still guards the last rank.
When a quiet step is illegal
If any legal hop exists, you must play a hopping move. When several captures are available, you may choose among them; the longest line is not forced. Once a multi-jump has started, that piece keeps hopping while another hop is available from the point it just reached.
What the far rank does
A piece that reaches the farthest rank does not become a king. Quiet steps from that rank are illegal; the piece may only move by capturing. There is no flying piece on this board.
Against the computer you hold Black by default; on a shared device or in a room, the two players simply alternate. The rules do not change between those modes.
When the game is over
You win when the other side has no pieces left, or when it is their turn and they have no legal move. You may also agree a draw. This board records a draw after forty consecutive quiet steps.
For a first sitting, ignore the score. Stay on the marked lines, take every jump you are required to take, and notice when a piece reaches the last rank. That is already a complete game of Alquerque.
Questions people ask before the first game
Is this the same game as Chinese checkers?
No. Chinese checkers is played on a star, and pieces hop along lines of empty holes to race home. This board is 5×5 Alquerque. You are trying to take the other side’s pieces or leave them with nowhere to go.
Can I ignore a jump and move a different piece?
No. If a legal hop exists, you have to hop. When more than one hopping line is available you may pick any of them; you cannot answer with a quiet step instead.
Does a piece become a king on the last rank?
No. This reconstruction has no promotion. A piece on the far rank may only capture. That is different from later draughts, where a man that crowns can walk both ways.
Who starts, and do pieces sit on squares?
Black starts. Pieces rest on the intersections, not in the squares. They only travel along the drawn lines.
