Seven Sleepers can be by played on an ordinary 8x8 square checkerboard, though in its original edition the board had starting positions for its pieces marked on the board. There are 8 blue pieces for one player, 8 red pieces for the other player, and 7 yellow neutral pieces.
The game starts with each player's pieces on the row of 8 squares on opposite sides of the board. The yellow neutral pieces are on the 7 junctions or intersections between squares in the middle of the board. Players take turns moving one of their pieces at a time, diagonally to an adjacent space, or jumping an opponent's piece to an opposite vacant space. Opponents' pieces are not captured or removed from the board.
Players may also move a piece vertically or horizontally, but only to jump an opponent's piece, landing on a vacant space on the other side. Because of these rules of movement, pieces will be bound to the color of square on which they began play.
The neutral pieces can be captured (removed from the board) by either player making a single diagonal move over the junction on which the neutral piece rests. Also, once a piece crosses the center line, it may not cross back to that half of the board. The player who first moves all of his pieces to his opponent's starting positions and has captured the majority of neutral pieces wins the game. Any other outcome is a draw.