How to play Checkers

Checkers, also called draughts, is played with flat round pieces on a chequered board. You move your pieces forward on the diagonals, jump over enemy pieces to capture them, and turn a piece that reaches the far side into a powerful king. The rules fit on a postcard, but because capturing is compulsory, every move can be used to force your opponent into a trap. Good players think in exchanges: give up one piece to win two.

There is no luck at all: both sides see everything, and the stronger plan wins. Many countries play their own version, and this page lets you try fourteen of them against the computer, from the familiar American game on 8x8 to the big 12x12 Canadian board and the stacking game Lasca.

How to play on skill.games

In the settings popup choose a difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard or Crazy), a rule set under Rules (American is the default), and Your colour: Light or Dark. If you take Dark, the board turns round so your pieces are still at the bottom. Whoever the chosen rules say moves first does so, whether that is you or the computer. Press PLAY to start.

• Moving: tap one of your pieces, then tap one of the green dots that appear.
• Captures: when you have a capture, the pieces that must take glow, and the game will not let you make an ordinary move instead. For a multi-jump, tap each landing square in turn, or tap the final square directly when only one route leads there. If several routes reach the same square, the game asks you to TAP EACH JUMP.
• Score line: the top of the screen shows how many pieces you and the computer have left.

The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game and lets you resume, start a new game or switch the sound. The game is saved at the start of every turn, so an unfinished match can be continued next time with CONTINUE.

At the end, the results screen shows the pieces left on each side, how the game ended (every piece taken, no moves left, or the draw rule that applied) and the number of moves, along with your statistics: wins, losses, draws, win rate, current streak and best streak. Statistics are kept separately for each rule set and difficulty.

Rules

The rules below are the American ones, which are the default. The other thirteen rule sets change some of them; see Modes.

Setup. The board has 8x8 squares and only the dark squares are used. Each player has 12 pieces (called men) on the dark squares of the three rows nearest to them. Dark moves first.

Moving. A man moves one square diagonally forward to an empty square.

Capturing. If an enemy piece is diagonally next to your man and the square right behind it is empty, you jump over it and remove it. After landing, if another jump is available, you must continue with the same piece. In American rules men only jump forward.

• Capturing is mandatory. If any capture is possible, you must capture.
• If you have several captures, you may choose any of them, but you must complete the whole chain of jumps you start.

Kings. A man that reaches the far row is crowned and becomes a king, marked with a star. Crowning ends the move, even in the middle of a capture. A king moves and captures one square diagonally in any direction, forwards or backwards.

Winning. You win when your opponent has no pieces left or cannot make a legal move on their turn.

Draws:

• the same position occurs for the third time with the same player to move;
• forty moves by each side without a capture or a man moving;
• the game also ends as a draw if it reaches a very long move limit.

Strategy tips

• Keep your back row. Pieces on your home row stop enemy men from being crowned. Hold on to them as long as you can, especially early on.
• Control the centre. Central pieces have more moves and support each other. Pieces on the side edges are safe from capture but can only move one way.
• Move in groups. A man with a friend behind it cannot be jumped from the front. Lone runners are picked off.
• Use forced captures. Because taking is a must, you can offer a piece to drag an enemy man onto a square where you then jump two or more pieces. Always check what a sacrifice forces before you make it.
• Count before you trade. When you are ahead, even trades bring you closer to a win; when you are behind, avoid them.
• Get a king, then use it. A king can attack from behind and hunt lone men. In the variants with flying kings, one king can dominate the whole board.
• Watch for being blocked. You also lose if you cannot move, so in the endgame try to leave your opponent's pieces with no safe squares.

Difficulty levels

• Easy: looks only a move or two ahead and picks at random among its reasonable moves, so it often misses combinations.
• Normal: thinks for about a quarter of a second per move and looks many moves ahead, so it rarely leaves a piece to be taken for free.
• Hard: thinks longer and also values holding its back row, controlling the centre and trading pieces when it is ahead.
• Crazy: thinks the longest of all and also values free-moving kings. The toughest opponent.

Modes

The Rules setting offers fourteen rule sets. Unless stated otherwise, they are played on the dark squares, capturing is mandatory, a capture chain must be completed, and a player with no pieces or no legal move loses. Most also share the threefold-repetition draw.

• American: the standard game described above: 8x8, 12 pieces each, Dark first, men move and capture forward only, short kings, any capture may be chosen, crowning ends the move. Forty moves without a capture or man move is a draw.
• International: 10x10, 20 pieces each, Light first. Men move forward but capture forwards and backwards. Kings fly: they move and capture any distance along a diagonal. You must take the largest number of pieces possible (a king counts as one). Pieces are removed only after the move and cannot be jumped twice. A man is crowned only if its capture ends on the far row. Draws come from 25 moves each of king moves only without a capture, and from fixed move limits in endgames such as three kings against one.
• Brazilian: the international rules on an 8x8 board with 12 pieces each.
• Canadian: the international rules on a large 12x12 board with 30 pieces each.
• Italian: 8x8, Light first, and the board is mirrored so the dark corner is on the right. Men move and capture forward only, kings move one square. A man may never capture a king. Among captures you must take the most pieces, then capture with a king, then take the most kings, then take a king as early as possible in the chain.
• Spanish: 8x8 mirrored board, Light first. Men move and capture forward only; kings fly. You must take the most pieces, and if two captures take the same number, the one taking more kings.
• Russian: 8x8, Light first. Men capture forwards and backwards; kings fly. You may choose any capture. A man that reaches the far row during a capture becomes a king at once and continues capturing as a king. Fifteen moves each of king moves only without a capture is a draw, and three or more kings against a lone king must win within fifteen moves.
• Czech: 8x8, Light first. Men move and capture forward only; kings fly. If a king can capture, a king must make the capture; otherwise any capture may be chosen.
• Turkish: played on all 64 squares, 16 men each on the second and third rows. Men move and capture one square straight forward or sideways, never diagonally or backwards. Kings fly along rows and columns and may not turn straight back between two jumps. You must take the most pieces, and each piece is removed the moment it is jumped. A lone king against a lone king or a lone man is a draw.
• Armenian: all 64 squares, 16 men each. Men move one square forward, sideways or diagonally forward, but capture only straight forward or sideways. Kings move like a chess queen but capture only along rows and columns. You must take the most pieces, and jumped pieces are removed at once.
• Thai: 8 men each on the first two rows, Dark first. Men move and capture diagonally forward only. Kings move any distance, but when capturing they must land on the square right behind the piece taken. Any capture may be chosen, and pieces are removed at once. A lone king against a lone king is a draw.
• Giveaway: Russian rules with the goal reversed. You win when you have no pieces left or no legal move, so the aim is to force the computer to capture your pieces.
• Frisian: 10x10, 20 each, Light first. Men and kings can also capture straight along rows and columns, jumping a piece two squares away. Kings fly but move only diagonally when not capturing. You must take the highest value, with a king worth one and a half men; if equal, you must capture with a king. While you still have men, the same king may make at most three non-capturing moves in a row. Two kings against one must win within seven moves, and king against king is a draw when neither can capture.
• Lasca: 7x7 board, 11 pieces each, Light first. Capturing takes only the top piece of an enemy column and puts it underneath your own capturing column, so pieces build up into towers. A column belongs to whoever's piece is on top and moves as one unit, and a buried piece is freed when the pieces above it are captured. Soldiers move and capture forward; officers (crowned soldiers) move one square in any diagonal direction. A column cannot be jumped twice in one move. You win when your opponent cannot move. One officer column against one officer column is a draw.