Checkers

Overview

Checkers, known as draughts outside North America, is a two-player board game of diagonal movement and capture played on the dark squares of a standard 64-square board. It is far simpler to learn than chess, since every piece moves the same way, yet the game still contains enough depth that it has been studied seriously by mathematicians and computer scientists — a fully solved version of the standard game, confirmed through years of computer analysis, ends in a draw with perfect play from both sides.

The game's ancestry runs through a much older Egyptian and Mediterranean game called alquerque, which was adapted onto a chessboard in medieval France, giving rise to the game played today. Its accessible rules and quick playtime have made it a staple in homes, schools, and community centers for generations.

What You Need

You need an 8-by-8 checkered board, using only the 32 dark squares for play, and 24 round pieces divided evenly into two colors, 12 per player.

Setup

Position the board so a dark square sits in each player's bottom-left corner. Each player places their 12 pieces on the dark squares of the three rows closest to them, leaving the middle two rows empty at the start. The player with the darker-colored pieces (or, by informal agreement, either player) moves first.

How to Play

On a standard turn, a piece moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. If an opponent's piece sits diagonally adjacent with an empty square directly beyond it, you may jump over it, capturing that piece and removing it from the board. Multiple jumps in a single turn are allowed, and in most rule sets, required, if the position allows it — you must keep jumping with the same piece as long as further captures are available. When a piece reaches the farthest row from where it started, it is "crowned" into a king, marked by stacking a second piece on top. Kings can move and capture diagonally both forward and backward, giving them much greater range than regular pieces.

How to Win

You win by capturing all of your opponent's pieces, or by trapping them so they have no legal move remaining on their turn. Some rule sets also allow players to agree to a draw when neither side can make further progress.

Tips

• Control the center of the board rather than pushing pieces along the edges.
• Avoid moving a single piece too far forward without support from other pieces.
• Look one or two jumps ahead before moving, since captures often chain together.
• Protect your back row for as long as possible to delay your opponent's kings.
• Force trades when you are ahead in pieces; avoid them when you are behind.

Common Mistakes

• Forgetting that captures are mandatory in most standard rule sets.
• Leaving a piece exposed to a double or triple jump.
• Racing a single piece toward the king row while ignoring the rest of the board.
• Failing to notice that a king can capture backward as well as forward.

Variations

International (Polish) draughts is played on a larger 10-by-10 board with 20 pieces per side and allows long-range king movement similar to a bishop in chess. Spanish and Italian checkers introduce their own restrictions on which pieces must capture first. Losing checkers (also called "suicide checkers") reverses the goal entirely — the first player to lose all their pieces, or who has no legal move, wins. Canadian checkers uses an even larger 12-by-12 board with 30 pieces per side, extending the midgame considerably, while Turkish draughts abandons diagonal movement entirely in favor of orthogonal moves and captures, making it feel closer to a distant cousin of the game than a simple variant.

Frequently Asked Questions

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