Checkers rules

Checkers is a game for two players on an 8×8 board. Each player starts with 12 pieces on the dark squares, pieces move one square diagonally forward, and you capture by jumping over an opponent’s piece into the empty square behind it. Captures are mandatory, a piece that can keep jumping must finish the chain, and a piece that reaches the far row is crowned king and may then move backward too. You win by capturing all your opponent’s pieces or leaving them with no legal move. This guide explains every rule of American checkers (English draughts), the version this site uses, and how it differs from other draughts games.

Overview

Checkers belongs to the draughts family, a group of games in which pieces move diagonally and capture by jumping. Books on draughts were already being printed in the 16th century, and today the 8×8 game described here is played under the same rules in the United States, where it is called checkers, and in the UK, where it is called draughts or English draughts. Other countries play their own versions with different board sizes and capture rules (see Variants below).

Setting up the board

1. Turn the board so each player has a light square in the corner nearest their right hand. Only the 32 dark squares are used during the game.
2. Place 12 pieces each on the dark squares of the three rows closest to you. The two middle rows start empty.
3. Decide the colors. The darker pieces (Black) move first. It is fair to swap colors after every game; on this site, Rematch does it for you.

In this guide, squares are named like a chessboard and seen from Black’s side: columns a to h from left to right, rows 1 to 8 from Black’s edge of the board. Black’s pieces start on the dark squares of rows 1 to 3, Red’s on rows 6 to 8.

Objective

Win by doing one of two things:

1. Capture every one of your opponent’s pieces, or
2. Leave your opponent with no legal move on their turn, because all their remaining pieces are blocked.

How a turn works

Black moves first and then the players alternate, one move per turn. A move is either a plain move of one piece or a capture, which may be a chain of several jumps by the same piece. You must move when it is your turn; there is no passing. If you have no legal move at all, you lose.

Movement and special rules

Moving a piece

An uncrowned piece, called a man, moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. It never moves sideways, straight ahead or backward, and it never lands on a light square. A man at the side edge of the board has only one forward diagonal.

Capturing by jumping

If an opponent’s piece is diagonally next to yours and the square directly behind it is empty, you can jump over it into that empty square. The jumped piece is captured and taken off the board. A man can only jump forward, but it can jump an opponent’s king as well as a man. You cannot jump your own pieces, you cannot jump two pieces standing next to each other on the same line, and a piece on the side edge can never be jumped because there is no square behind it.

Captures are mandatory

If any of your pieces can capture, you must capture on that turn. A plain move is not allowed while a jump is available anywhere on the board. This rule is what makes checkers tactical: you can offer a piece on purpose to force your opponent’s piece into a square where you get more back. On this site only the pieces that can capture can be selected when a jump is available, and the game tells you that you must capture.

Multiple jumps

After a jump, if the same piece can jump again from its landing square, it must continue. A man keeps jumping forward, and a king can change direction between jumps. The whole chain is one move, and all the captured pieces are removed when it ends. A piece cannot be jumped twice in the same move. On this site you tap each landing square in turn, or just the final square when there is only one route to it.

Choosing between captures

When you have more than one way to capture, you may choose any of them. You do not have to pick the jump that takes the most pieces, and you can choose which of your pieces does the capturing. The only requirement is that the route you choose is completed: once your piece starts jumping, you cannot stop while that route still has a jump available.

Crowning a king

When a man reaches the far row (row 8 for Black, row 1 for Red), it is crowned and becomes a king. With a physical set, another piece of the same color is stacked on top; on this site the piece shows a crown. Crowning ends the move. If a man reaches the far row in the middle of a chain of jumps, it stops there, even if it could jump again as a king. Its new powers start on the next turn.

How kings move and capture

A king moves one square diagonally in any of the four directions, forward or backward. It captures the same way a man does, by jumping an adjacent piece into the empty square behind it, but in any direction, and it can mix directions within one multi-jump. A king can even finish a circular chain of jumps on the square it started from.

No flying kings

In American checkers a king never moves or captures from a distance. It cannot slide along an empty diagonal, and it cannot jump a piece that isn’t right next to it. Kings that fly across the board belong to international, Russian and pool checkers, not to this game.

Winning, draws and ending the game

The game ends as soon as one of these happens:

• Win by captures. The player who takes the opponent’s last piece wins.
• Win by blockade. If the player to move has pieces left but none of them can make a legal move, that player loses.
• Draw by agreement. Players can agree to a draw at any time. On this site the player whose turn it is taps Draw to offer one, and the other accepts or declines on the same device. The computer thinks the position over first: it says no while it sees a win for itself, and early in the game it agrees only if it is behind.
• Draw by repetition. If the same position appears for the third time with the same player to move, the game is drawn. This usually happens when two kings chase each other without progress.
• Draw by the 40-move rule. If 40 moves pass on each side with no capture and no uncrowned piece moving, the game is drawn. Over a physical board a player has to claim it and someone has to count; this site counts for you and ends the game automatically.

With strong play many games end in draws, which is why match play is often scored over several games. For ideas that turn level positions into wins, see the checkers strategy tutorial.

Variants and which rules this site uses

International draughts is played on a 10×10 board with 20 pieces each. Brazilian and Russian draughts use the same 8×8 board and 12 pieces as checkers, but their rules for men and kings differ:

There are other details too. In Russian draughts a man that reaches the far row during a capture is crowned and keeps jumping as a king. Pool checkers, played in parts of the United States, also gives men backward captures and kings that fly. In Italian draughts men are not allowed to capture kings.

This site uses the American / English rules, exactly as described above: an 8×8 board, 12 pieces each, Black moves first, men move and capture forward only, captures are mandatory, a chain of jumps must be completed but any route may be chosen, crowning ends the move, kings move one square at a time, and draws by agreement, threefold repetition and the 40-move rule.

These rules follow the official rules of English draughts published by the World Checkers/Draughts Federation (WCDF), which are also the basis of the rules used by the American Checker Federation and the English Draughts Association. Two things are simplified for play on one screen: a draw by repetition or by the 40-move rule ends the game automatically, where over the board a player claims it and a referee checks the count, and every game starts from the normal setup rather than from a tournament opening ballot.

Some families play house rules, such as making jumps optional. Older rule books also had huffing: if you missed a jump, your opponent could remove the piece that should have captured. Huffing is no longer part of the standard rules. Instead, a move that ignores a capture is simply not allowed, and that is how this site works by default. If your family prefers optional jumps, switch Forced capture off in the game setup. Everything else stays the same, including the rule that a chain of jumps, once started, must be completed.

In tournaments the strongest players also use opening ballots, where the first few moves are drawn at random, because unrestricted openings between experts lead to too many draws.

Common mistakes and rule disputes

“I don’t want to jump.” Under the standard rules you have no choice. If a capture is available, you must take one.

“My man can capture backward.” Only kings can. A man moves and captures forward only.

“You have to take the most pieces.” Not in this game. Any capture route is legal, as long as you complete it.

“I got crowned, so I keep jumping.” No. Crowning ends the move, even in the middle of a chain.

“Kings can move across the board.” Not in American checkers. Kings move one square at a time.

“Kings can only be captured by kings.” A man can capture a king, as long as the jump is forward.

“I’m blocked, so I pass.” There is no passing. A player with no legal move loses.

Forgetting the danger after a forced jump. Most lost pieces come from a jump you were forced to make, which pulled your piece into a square where your opponent jumped two back. Before every move, check what your opponent can force next.

Glossary

• Man: an ordinary, uncrowned piece.
• King: a man that has reached the far row. It moves and captures in all four diagonal directions.
• Crowning: turning a man into a king when it reaches the far row, also called the king row.
• Jump: a capture made by leaping over an adjacent piece into the empty square behind it.
• Multiple jump: two or more jumps by the same piece in one move.
• Exchange: a trade in which each side captures the same number of pieces.
• Shot: a deliberate sacrifice that forces the opponent to jump into a position where you capture more pieces in return.
• Single corner: the lone dark square in each player’s near left-hand corner (a1 for Black, h8 for Red).
• Double corner: the pair of dark squares in each player’s near right-hand corner (g1 and h2 for Black, a7 and b8 for Red). A lone king defending in a double corner is hard to trap.
• Bridge: men kept on c1 and g1 (b8 and f8 for Red), a strong way to guard the back row.

Play it now

The rules sink in fastest on a real board. Open Checkers to play with a friend on one device or against the computer on Easy, Medium or Hard. When you know the rules, the beginner checkers tutorial shows how to open, when to trade and how to win the endgame.