Checkers Glossary: American Checkers Terms and Definitions

The board and pieces

Dark square: One of the 32 playable squares. Diagonal moves stay on the same square color throughout the game.
Diagonal: A slanting line of squares of the same color. All steps and jumps in American checkers follow diagonals.
Man: An uncrowned checker. It steps and jumps diagonally forward. The plural is men.
King: A crowned checker that can step and jump both forward and backward. A physical set often marks a king by stacking two discs.
Back row: The row nearest you. Checkers left there can guard the squares your opponent needs to reach to make a king.
King row: The row farthest from you. A man reaching it is crowned. It is also called the crown head.
Single corner: The corner where a playable dark square sits directly in the corner of the board. From your side, it is the near-left corner.
Double corner: The corner at the other end of your back row, with two playable squares next to it on the same diagonal. A defending king can use the pair to avoid being trapped.

Step: An ordinary move to a neighboring empty square along a diagonal. You may step only when you have no available capture.
Jump: A capture in which your piece moves over an adjacent enemy piece to the empty square just beyond it. The jumped piece is removed.
Landing square: The empty square where a piece comes to rest after a jump. An opposing piece cannot be jumped if the square beyond it is occupied.
Compulsory capture: The rule that you must jump if any of your pieces can capture. If several routes are available, you may choose any legal one in American checkers.
Multiple jump: Two or more captures by the same piece in one turn. Follow the chain until the piece cannot capture again or a man reaches the king-row.
Crowning: Promoting a man to a king by reaching the far row. Crowning ends the turn, including when it happens during a jump.
Blocked: Unable to move or jump. If every piece on the side to move is blocked, that side loses.

Opening: The first phase of play, when pieces leave their starting squares and players contest the center. The term can also mean a named sequence of starting moves.
Center: The middle of the board, where pieces have more diagonal routes than they do on an edge.
Mobility: How freely your pieces can move. A piece may have more usable moves in the center, while one on the edge has fewer ways out.
Material: The pieces each side still has. A material advantage usually means more pieces, though the number of kings also matters.
Sacrifice: Giving up a piece on purpose. You might force an opponent’s jump to open a route to the king row or set up a shot.
Shot: A tactical sequence that uses one or more forced captures to set up a payoff, often a multiple jump.
Trade: An exchange in which both players lose pieces in the same sequence. Trading evenly can help a player who is already ahead.

Endgame: The last phase of play, with relatively few pieces left. The timing of a move and the routes available to kings can decide the result.
Opposition: An endgame relationship in which the side that has to move gives way or exposes a piece. With few pieces left, an otherwise identical position can play differently depending on whose turn it is.
Draw: A game that ends without a winner. The ending rules explain when LarkSpark declares a draw.

English draughts: Another name for American checkers, the version with an 8×8 board, twelve pieces a side, and short-range kings.
International draughts: A 10×10 version with twenty pieces a side, backward captures for men, flying kings, and a rule requiring the maximum number of captures.
Flying king: A king that can slide along an open diagonal and jump from a distance in variants such as international-draughts. American checkers uses short-range kings.
Go-as-you-please (GAYP): A format in which players choose their own opening moves from the standard starting position.
Three-move ballot: A tournament format in which a draw from an approved list determines the first three individual turns. Players choose their own moves after that.
Numbered notation: A way to record play by numbering the 32 usable squares. A step may be written 11–15, while a jump uses an x, as in 22x15.
Huffing: An old rule that let a player remove an opposing piece that had failed to make an available capture. Modern American checkers requires the jump instead.