Player’s guide
Checkers looks simple: twelve pieces each, one kind of move, one way to capture. The depth comes from the forced-capture rule, which lets a good player decide what their opponent must do next. This guide covers where the game came from, the ideas strong players lean on, and how to get a game going here.
01 · Checkers
Games of capture by jumping are thousands of years old. The closest ancestor of checkers is alquerque, played on a grid of lines across the Middle East and later in Spain. Around the twelfth century, players in France moved the idea onto a chessboard and used backgammon-style discs for pieces.
The rule that makes checkers what it is today, that a capture must be taken when one is available, appeared in France in the sixteenth century. The game spread to Britain as draughts and to North America as checkers. The 8×8 version played here is the one most English speakers learn, and the one with the deepest body of published play.
Checkers also has a place in computing history. In 2007 a team at the University of Alberta finished a decades-long computation showing that, with perfect play from both sides, a game of checkers ends in a draw. People still play it because nobody plays perfectly.
02 · Checkers
Early moves decide who controls the middle of the board. Pieces in the center have two forward squares to choose from; pieces on the edge have only one, and they can be pinned there.
Many players keep two back-row pieces in place for most of the game, with a gap between them. An opponent cannot slip through that pair without being jumped.
03 · Checkers
Because captures are compulsory, you can offer a piece to pull an opponent’s piece onto a square of your choosing. If the jump lands them where you can take two or three pieces back, that is called a shot, and it is the most common way checkers games are won.
Before every move, ask two questions: which captures does this force my opponent to make, and what can I jump after they do? Ask the same question for your opponent’s last move, because they may be setting a shot for you.
04 · Checkers
A king moves and captures both forward and backward, which makes it worth roughly two ordinary pieces in most positions. Getting the first king usually decides an even game, so look for lanes your opponent has left open toward their back row.
Once you have a king, bring it back into the fight. A king sitting on the back row does nothing; a king behind enemy pieces can attack them from the side they cannot defend.
05 · Checkers
With only a few pieces left, timing matters more than material. When pieces face each other with one empty square between them, the player who does not have to move holds the advantage, because the other side must step forward into a capture. Players call this having the opposition.
The board has two kinds of corners. The single corner is one dark square; the double corner is a pair of dark squares next to each other. A lone king that reaches the double corner can shuffle between the two squares and is very hard to trap, so the defending side heads there and the stronger side tries to keep it out.
Two kings against one is a win, but only if you drive the lone king out of the double corner. Practice it against a bot until it feels routine.
06 · Checkers
You can start a game on the Checkers page without an account. Play against one of eight bots, from Altair at level 1 to Orion at level 8. The lower levels move at random or grab the nearest capture, which makes them good for learning the rules; the top level searches deep and punishes loose pieces.
To play a person, pick an online match, or sign in and open a private room to send a friend a code. Games can be untimed, or played with a clock: a quick three minutes with a two-second bonus per move, or five or ten minutes each. Your recent results are listed on the game’s stats page.
Keep playing
The same 8×8 board with six kinds of pieces. If you enjoy planning a few moves ahead, chess rewards it even more.
One move can flip a whole line of discs. Corners matter, and the player ahead early often loses.
A race home with dice, where blocking and hitting your opponent’s pieces feels a lot like a checkers trade.
Ready to play?
Start at level 1 and work up, or invite a friend to a private room.
