How to play

You play the ivory pieces and move first. Pieces move one square diagonally forward. If you can jump an opponent's piece, you must — and if a second jump follows, you must take that too. Reach the far row and your piece is crowned a king, which can move and jump backwards as well.

You win when the opponent has no pieces or no moves. The game is a draw if the same position repeats three times or forty moves pass without a capture or crowning.

The Oracle

The Oracle is your optional advisor. Tap 🔮 to open it and it stays on duty at the start of each of your turns until you close it.

It uses minimax: for every move you could make it imagines each reply, each answer to that reply, and so on, assuming both sides play their best, then scores the move by how that ends. How many moves ahead it looks depends on the level you chose — Casual looks 3 moves ahead; Pro looks as far as it can in about four seconds, often much further late in the game.

A green tag means that move forces a win; red means it loses against best play; amber is the Oracle's look-ahead score when it can't see the end (bigger is better for you). It weighs pieces, kings, how far your men have advanced, whether your back row is guarded, and how much room you have to move.

The best move is highlighted on the board: purple is the piece to move, gold is where it lands, and a red glow marks anything it captures. Tap another option in the list to see that one instead. The Oracle only advises you; the computer player plays its own way regardless.

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