The Spanish rules (playstrategy.org/variant/portuguese) state that "If there has been no progress made in 20 moves by either player the game is drawn.". Does progress mean capturing pieces? Or something else?

btw: some of the links in the rules link to lidraughts.org

Hi @KingKevin23 'no progress' means if neither player has captured any pieces or promoted any men to kings. i.e. if after 20 moves (for each player) there is still the exact same material on the board (just in a different position) then the game is drawn.

Thanks, we've updated those links!

1

Thanks for the clarification!

@statmatt , @KingKevin23
One little detail on measuring "progress": 20 moves rule doesn't presume that a player who has some draughtsman, should crown it during next 20 moves for proving his or her rights to fight till the winning! In fact, there are many Spanish endgames, where a draughtsman (which is crucial for winning) is to be promoted after 20 moves. Yet "progress" in this case means that a draughtsman had made a move, but was not stick on some square!
A typical illustration of this might be an endgame "2 kings and 1 draughtsman vs. 1 king and 1 draughtsman". If, for example, white has kings on a1 and a5 and a draughtsman on c1, but black has king on a7 and a draughtsman on a3, in the hardest cases, white should not be able to crown a draughtsman in 20 moves. Yet, this is winning endgame, and it can't be subject to "progress" measuring, because white draughtsman will make moves, and draughtsman advancement is a prove of progress.

1