Checkers (Draughts) Capture all pieces in 1 move

Question

What moves would have to be played leading up to this, obviously both players would have to chip in, but how would this work? Is it even possible to get this board playing with actual rules?

Answer 1

No, on an 8x8 board and the regular American checkers rules, you can capture at most 9 out of the 12 pieces:

The white king can capture here the sequence (in chess notation)

h8 x f6 x h4 x f2 x d4 x b6 x d8 x f6 x d4 x b2

Note that the white king passes the squares f6 and d4 multiple times, which is allowed (what is not allowed, is jumping the same piece more than once).

Because a jumped piece is at least 2 rows and columns away from another jumped piece, it is impossible to add more pieces to this configuration. And because of the board symmetry, it is easy to see that shifting the pieces will also not work.

On a 10x10 board using International draughts rules (where kings can skip multiple empty squares before and after a jump), the maximum you can capture is 19 out of the 20 pieces in the initial position:

Figuring out the correct capture sequence is left as an exercise :-)

Proof game for reaching the second position 1. 31-27 17-21 2. 33-28 21-26 3. 39-33 11-17 4. 44-39 17-21 5. 28-22 6-11 6. 50-44 11-17 7. 22x11 20-24 8. 11-6 12-17 9. 35-30 24x35 10. 34-30 35x24 11. 40-34 7-11 12. 34-30 24x35 13. 39-34 1-7 14. 6-1 8-12 15. 43-39 2-8 16. 34-30 35x24 17. 48-43 14-20 18. 32-28 21x23 19. 39-34 10-14 20. 37-31 26x30 21. 45-40 5-10 22. 44-39 20-25 23. 39-34 30x28 24. 41-37 15-20 25. 37-32 28x37 26. 38-32 37x28 27. 36-31 16-21 28. 31-27 21x32 29. 46-41 18-22 30. 47-42 22-27 31. 41-37 32x41 32. 49-43 24-29 33. 43-39 29-33 34. 39-34 20-24 35. 34-30 24x44 36. 42-38 33x42 37. 1-6 25-30 38. 6-1 30-34 39. 1-6 34-39 40. 6-1 39-43 41. 1-6 27-31 42. 6-1 28-32 43. 1-6 12-18 44. 6-1 7-12 45. 1-6 23-29 46. 6-1 29-33 47. 1-6 19-24 48. 6-1 24-29 49. 1-6 29-34 50. 6-1 14-19 51. 1-6 19-24 52. 6-1 24-30 53. 1-6 10-14 54. 6-1 14-20 55. 1-6 4-10 56. 6-1 13-19 57. 1-6 9-13 58. 6-1 3-9 59. 1-6 19-23 60. 6-1 13-19 61. 1-6 18-22 62. 6-1 17-21 *