Checkers Strategy: How to Win at Checkers

Between beginners, many games of checkers turn on one careless move that hands the other side a jump. Because every capture is compulsory, a player who sees those jumps coming can also use them, forcing the opponent into captures that set up a bigger reply. Start there, then guard your back row, open toward the centre, and trade when you are ahead.

The square numbers below are standard notation, 1 to 32, with Black at the top. On our board you play Black against the computer, from the top of the screen, so the examples read exactly as you see them. The numbered board in our checkers rules shows every square.

Check Every Move for the Jump It Gives

Before you move, look at the squares your piece leaves open and the square it lands on, and ask which jump your opponent now has. Then turn it around and look for a piece you can offer so that the forced capture sets up a double jump for you. That trade of one piece for two is called the two-for-one shot, and it decides many games between beginners.

Note the quiet piece on 5. Without it, White's capture would have carried on from 14 over 9 to 5, and the shot would have failed. Check every landing square in the sequence, yours and your opponent's, before you offer a piece.

Guard Your Back Row, Then Keep the Bridge

Your opponent cannot crown a king while your back row is full, so move those four pieces last. You cannot keep them forever: once you are short of pieces, or a good trade needs them, move out. When you do, keep two behind. Black's strongest pair is squares 1 and 3, and White's is 30 and 32. Checkers books call this the bridge.

To get through, the attacker has to park a man on square 10 against Black's bridge, or 23 against White's, because that is where the bridge's jumps land. The parked man is stranded there and can be attacked from four directions. Breaking a bridge properly takes three attacking pieces lined up and a trade. A weaker form keeps men on 2 and 4 for Black, or 29 and 31 for White.

Open With 11-15

Black has seven possible first moves, and experts rate 11-15 the best of them. It develops a piece from the single-corner side, the strongest part of Black's defence, toward the centre. On our board, 11 is the third piece from the left in your front row, and 11-15 moves it one square down and to the left.

Each first move leads into a family of named openings, and tournament play draws from 156 accepted three-move openings. You do not need to memorise any of them to play well. Aim your first moves at the centre, keep your back row together, and check each move for the shot it allows.

Play Toward the Centre, in Pairs

A man in the middle of the board can move to two squares; one on the side edge can move to only one. Centre pieces also back each other up and can push the enemy toward the sides, where pieces get squeezed. That is why most books tell beginners to play centreward.

Move in pairs. A man with a partner directly behind it on the same diagonal cannot be jumped along that line, because the landing square is taken. A man that runs ahead alone is the easiest target on the board. The edge has its uses too: a man on the side edge cannot be jumped at all, because there is no square beyond it to land on, and when enemy kings are chasing your last men, running them along the edge is usually safer.

Trade When Ahead

When you have more pieces, swap them off one for one. Five against four is close; after three even trades it is two against one, and twice as many pieces is a huge advantage. When you are behind, do the opposite: avoid even trades, keep pieces on the board, and look for a shot to win material back.

Kings and Endings

Crown more kings than your opponent. A king moves both ways, so the side with more kings usually has the upper hand. Head for a king where your opponent is thin, and use a spare piece as a decoy if a defender is chasing your runner.

Keep kings out of the single corner. A king in the single corner, square 4 or 29, or on a side square can be boxed in and trapped. The double corner is the safe place for a lone king, but not safe enough: two kings beat one even there. The stronger side works its two kings together to force the lone king out of the corner, then traps it.

Know who has the move. In a simplified ending the side that controls the last move can force the other to give ground, and you can lose simply because it is your turn. Checkers players call this having the move, or the opposition.

Checkers books teach five classic endings, First to Fifth Position, because they turn up again and again in real games. Learn First Position first: two kings against a king and a man left on square 3. The two kings drive the lone king out of the double corner, and the man is forced to walk into them.

Beginner Mistakes

• Playing with optional captures at home. The official rules make every capture compulsory, and shots only work because of it.
• Emptying the back row early, which opens the way for enemy kings.
• Sending one man far ahead alone, where it can be picked off or forced into a losing jump.
• Moving without checking the reply. Every move changes which jumps your opponent has.
• Crowning into the single corner when a route to the double corner is open.

Practise Against the Computer

Our board opens against the computer, with you on Black and moving first, so you can play 11-15 and test these ideas at once. The computer plays at one strength and reads ahead through chains of forced captures, so a shot you leave open is likely to be found. It never offers a draw and accepts yours only when it judges itself to be behind. For the full rules, including the 40-move draw rule, see the checkers rules.