Checkers Rules

How to Play Checkers

Checkers (also called Draughts) is a two-player strategy board game played on an 8x8 board with alternating light and dark squares. Each player starts with 12 pieces and the goal is to capture all of your opponent's pieces or block them so they cannot move. Checkers is one of the world's oldest and most widely played board games, combining simple rules with surprising strategic depth.

Board Setup

The standard checkers board is an 8x8 grid of alternating dark and light squares — the same board used for chess. Only the dark squares are used in play.

1. Orient the board so each player has a dark square in the lower-left corner.
2. Each player places 12 pieces on all the dark squares in their three closest rows.
3. The two middle rows remain empty at the start — this is the initial battleground.
4. One player takes the dark pieces and the other takes the light pieces. Dark moves first in standard rules.

Basic Movement

Regular checkers pieces (called “men”) follow these movement rules:

• A man moves one square diagonally forward to an adjacent empty dark square.
• Men can only move forward (toward the opponent's side) — never backward.
• Only dark squares are used. Pieces never move onto light squares.
• Players alternate turns. You must move one piece on each turn.

Capturing (Jumping)

Capturing is the core mechanic that makes checkers exciting:

• To capture, jump over an adjacent opponent's piece diagonally to the empty square beyond it. The jumped piece is removed from the board.
• Jumps are mandatory. If you can make a capture on your turn, you must do so. You cannot choose a non-capturing move when a jump is available.
• Multiple jumps: If after jumping you can immediately jump another piece, you must continue jumping in the same turn. A single piece can capture multiple opponents in one turn through a chain of jumps.
• If more than one capture is available, the player may choose which one to make (in American Checkers — some variants require the maximum capture sequence).

King Promotion

When a piece reaches the king row — the farthest row on the opponent's side of the board — it is promoted to a king. Kings are typically indicated by stacking a second checker on top (or, in digital versions, with a crown symbol).

• Kings can move and capture both forward and backward diagonally.
• In American Checkers, kings still move only one square at a time (unlike some international variants where kings can “fly” across multiple squares).
• When a piece reaches the king row during a multiple-jump sequence, the turn ends immediately in standard American rules — the newly crowned king cannot continue jumping until the next turn.

Winning the Game

A game of checkers ends in one of these ways:

• Capture all pieces: You win by capturing every one of your opponent's pieces.
• Block all pieces: You win if your opponent has pieces but none of them can make a legal move.
• Resignation: A player may concede the game at any time.
• Draw: If neither player can force a win, the game ends in a draw. This often occurs when both players have a small number of kings circling each other.

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