Checkers

What Is Checkers?

Checkers is a board game for two players on the 32 dark squares of an 8x8 board. Each side starts with 12 pieces, moves them diagonally forward, and captures by jumping over enemy pieces. Every capture is compulsory. A piece that reaches the far row is crowned king and can move backward. You win when your opponent has no move left.

Our board plays American checkers, known in Britain as draughts or English draughts, with kings that move one square at a time. It opens against the computer: you take the dark pieces and move first. Press 2 Players and two people can take turns at one screen instead.

How to Set Up a Checkers Board

Turn the board so each player has a dark square in the near left corner, then put 12 pieces on the dark squares of the three rows nearest you, four to a row. Your opponent does the same at the other end, and the two middle rows stay empty. That is 24 pieces on 32 dark squares, with 8 dark squares left open.

Step-by-step setup

1. Turn the board the right way. Put the board between you so each player has a dark square in the near left corner and a light square in the near right corner.
2. Choose colours. Pick at random who takes the dark pieces for the first game, then swap colours each game. The dark pieces move first.
3. Place your 12 pieces. Put one piece on each dark square in the three rows nearest you, four to a row.
4. Have your opponent do the same. Your opponent fills the dark squares of the three rows nearest them with their 12 pieces.
5. Leave the middle empty. The two middle rows start empty, so eight dark squares separate the two sides.
6. Count before the first move. Check for 12 pieces each, 24 in all, every one on a dark square. Then the dark side makes the first move.

Which colour moves first?

The darker pieces always move first. Many sets sold in the US pair black with red, so black starts. Tournament sets use red and white, and there red counts as the dark colour and starts. Rulebooks call the dark side Black and the light side White whatever the real colours, and number the dark squares 1 to 32 from Black's side, which is the numbering in the diagram above. On our board you play the dark pieces against the computer, so you always make the first move, from the top of the board down.

Setup mistakes to avoid

• A light square at your near left. The game still works, but your board is now a mirror image of every rulebook diagram, so the square numbers in books will not match your board.
• Pieces on the light squares. All play happens on the dark squares, and pieces never leave them.
• Filling the middle rows. Three rows each, then two empty rows between the armies.
• The light side moving first. The dark pieces always open.

On screen you can skip all of this: our board sets out all 24 pieces every time you press New Game.

How to Play Checkers

Move your pieces diagonally forward, jump enemy pieces whenever you can, crown the ones that reach the far row, and win by leaving your opponent without a move. Each turn is one move by one piece, and a chain of jumps counts as a single move.

1. Move one piece a turn. A piece moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. The dark pieces go first, then you alternate.
2. Jump to capture. If an enemy piece sits diagonally in front of yours with an empty square beyond it, jump over it and lift it off the board.
3. Take every jump you can. Capturing is compulsory. When you have more than one capture, choose any of them; it does not have to be the one that takes the most pieces.
4. Keep jumping. If the piece that just jumped can jump again, it must, and it may change direction. That is how double and triple jumps happen.
5. Crown a king. A piece that reaches the far row becomes a king, marked by a second piece stacked on top. Reaching that row ends your turn.
6. Move kings both ways. A king moves and jumps one square diagonally in any direction, forward or backward.
7. Leave your opponent without a move. You win when every enemy piece is captured or the ones left are blocked. If neither side can win, the game is a draw.

An uncrowned piece is called a man. Men never move backward, not even to capture, so a man that has run past the enemy pieces can only keep going. Every piece stays on the dark squares for the whole game, because a diagonal step from a dark square always lands on another dark square.

The full checkers rules cover the square numbers, the draw rules, illegal moves, and the tournament openings.

Checkers Rules People Get Wrong

Skipping a capture. Many people learn checkers with optional captures, and that house rule turns it into a slow, blocked game where nobody wants to leave the back row. Under the official rules every capture is compulsory. The old penalty for missing one, the huff, let your opponent remove the piece that should have jumped; it is no longer in the rules. Our board simply will not let you make a plain move while a jump is available.

Stopping a multiple jump halfway. Once a piece starts jumping it has to finish. You can pick which capture to start with, and you do not have to pick the one that takes the most pieces.

Jumping on after crowning. A man that lands on the far row is crowned, and the turn ends there, even if the new king could jump straight back out. It jumps on your next turn, if the chance is still there.

Kings flying across the board. In American checkers a king moves one square at a time and jumps only a piece right next to it. Kings that fly any distance belong to international draughts and Russian draughts.

Men capturing backward. A man jumps forward only. Backward captures by men are a feature of international, Russian, and pool checkers, not this game.

Playing on forever. Checkers has a draw rule. The official rules call a draw by agreement, when the same position occurs for the third time, or when 40 moves each pass without a capture and without an uncrowned man moving forward. Our board applies the last two automatically and shows a countdown during the final 20 moves each. Tournament rules also treat a skipped capture or a backward move by a man as an illegal move: the first is taken back with a caution, and a second in the same game loses it.

Play Checkers Against the Computer

The board opens in vs Computer mode. You play the dark pieces and move first; the computer plays the light pieces, thinks for a moment, and plays a multiple jump one hop at a time so you can follow it. The piece it moved stays outlined until you reply. Select one of your pieces and green dots mark the squares it can reach; when a capture is available, only the pieces that can capture will select. Kings carry a gold K.

The computer plays at a single strength. It never offers a draw. When you offer one, it accepts only if it judges its own position to be the worse one, so an offer made while you are behind is declined and play goes on.

For a game against a friend, press 2 Players and take turns at one screen, one of you on the dark pieces and one on the light. You can switch modes in the middle of a game without losing the position; the computer takes over the light pieces from its next move. Your game is saved in this browser, so closing the tab does not lose it.

How to Win at Checkers

Guard your back row. Your opponent cannot crown a king while your back row is full, so move those pieces last. When you do break it up, keep two: squares 1 and 3 if you play Black, 30 and 32 if you play White. Checkers books call this pair the bridge, and breaking it takes three attacking pieces lined up and a trade.

Open with 11-15. Black has seven possible first moves. Opening books name six of them and rate 11-15 the best and 9-13 the weakest.

Play toward the centre, in pairs. A man in the middle has two squares to move to; one on the side edge has only one. Two men on the same diagonal cover each other, while a man that runs ahead alone is easy to pick off.

Check which jump each move hands over. Because captures are compulsory, your opponent can offer one piece to force you into a jump that sets up a double jump in reply. Many games between beginners are decided by this two-for-one shot.

Trade when you are ahead. Five pieces against four is close; after three even trades it is two against one. When you are behind, avoid even trades and look for a shot instead.

Keep your kings out of the single corner. A king in the single corner or on a side square can be boxed in. Two kings beat one, even when the lone king hides in the double corner, and the side with more kings usually has the upper hand.

The checkers strategy guide covers the bridge, the two-for-one shot, the opposition, and the endgames of two kings against one.

Other Ways to Play Checkers

Outside the English-speaking world the game goes by names like dames, damas, and shashki, and the rules change from country to country. The differences come down to board size, whether kings fly, whether men can capture backward, and whether you must take the most pieces. Our board plays American checkers only.

Giveaway checkers turns the goal around: you win by losing all your pieces, or by having no move left. Chinese checkers is not checkers at all; it grew out of Halma and is played on a star-shaped board.

The checkers variants section of our rules page gives the capture rules of each one in detail.

Where Checkers Came From

Checkers probably grew out of alquerque, a jumping game played on a grid of lines, and most accounts place its move onto the chessboard in 12th-century France. It was called fierges, after the chess queen of the day, which also moved one square diagonally. Compulsory capture came later, in 16th-century France. Claims that the game is thousands of years old rest on Egyptian and Mesopotamian boards from games with other rules, such as the race game found at Ur.

William Payne wrote the first book in English on the game in 1756, with a dedication by Samuel Johnson, and Scotland's Andrew Anderson became the first recognised world champion in 1840. Marion Tinsley, an American mathematics professor, held the title from 1955 to 1958 and from 1975 to 1991 and lost only seven games from 1950 until his death in 1995. In 1992 he beat the computer program Chinook with 4 wins, 2 losses, and 33 draws. In 2007 Chinook's makers proved that perfect play from the start is a draw.

The history of checkers tells the full story, from alquerque to the Chinook proof.

Checkers FAQ

To choose between the two classic board games, compare chess and checkers.