How to Play Checkers
Checkers – draughts in Britain – takes five minutes to learn, and every rule below has a board you can try right here. These are the standard American and English rules: an 8×8 board, and captures are compulsory.
Board setup: the dark squares
Checkers is played on the 32 dark squares of an 8×8 board. Each player has 12 pieces, on the three rows nearest to them. Black moves first, and then players take turns, one move each.
Setting up a real board
Turn the board so that each player has a dark square in their bottom-left corner, then fill the dark squares of the three rows closest to you. The light squares are never used.
1. How pieces move: one square diagonally forward
An ordinary piece is called a man. It moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. A man can never move backwards, and never onto a light square.
Try it
Tap one of the black pieces, then tap a dot to move it.
2. How to capture: jump over your opponent
To capture, jump over an enemy piece that sits diagonally next to you and land on the empty square right behind it. The jumped piece is taken off the board.
If the piece that just jumped can jump again from where it landed, it keeps going in the same turn. A double or triple jump still counts as a single move.
Try it
Black can take two pieces here. Tap the piece that can jump.
- You can never jump over one of your own pieces.
- The same piece cannot be jumped twice in one move.
- A man jumps forwards only. A king jumps in all four directions.
3. Forced captures: if you can capture, you must
This is the rule beginners miss most often. Capturing is compulsory: if any of your pieces can jump, you are not allowed to play anything else.
When several captures are available you may choose any one of them – but once you start a jump, you have to finish the whole jump.
Quick quiz
Black to move. Every black piece looks free to move – but only one move is legal. Which piece?
Show the answer
The black piece diagonally below the red piece in the middle of the board. It has to jump that red piece – while a capture is available, every other move is illegal.
In our game the pieces that have to capture glow, so you cannot miss them. Prefer a relaxed game? Turn Mandatory capture off in Settings and captures become optional.
4. What is a king? Reaching the far row
A man that reaches the far row is crowned a king, marked here with a crown. A king moves and captures backwards as well as forwards, one square at a time.
Crowning ends your turn, even if the brand-new king could jump again.
Try it
Move the black piece up to the top row.
Kings here move one square at a time. The “flying kings” that slide any distance along a diagonal belong to international draughts, a different game played on a 10×10 board.
5. How to win, and how games are drawn
You win when your opponent has no pieces left, or when they cannot make a legal move on their turn because every piece of theirs is blocked.
A game is a draw when neither side can make progress. On this site that means the same position appearing three times, or 40 moves in a row by both players with no capture and no man moved.
6. Winning tactics: the trick that wins most games
Because captures are compulsory, you can often decide what your opponent plays next. Offer one piece, and take two back.
Watch it happen
- Black moves a piece right next to Red – on purpose.
- Red has to take it. Captures are compulsory.
- Black jumps straight back over two pieces.
Three more habits
- Keep your back row at home for as long as you can. Your opponent cannot crown a king through it.
- Play towards the middle. A piece on the edge has only one way to go.
- Trade pieces when you are ahead. One piece up out of four matters far more than one piece up out of twelve.
Common questions
- Is checkers the same as draughts?
- Yes. American checkers and English draughts are the same game, and it is the game on this site.
- Can an ordinary piece capture backwards?
- No. A man only jumps forwards. Once it is crowned, a king jumps backwards as well.
- Do I have to take the capture that wins the most pieces?
- No. Any capture will do – you simply cannot decline all of them, and you must finish the jump you start.
- Who moves first?
- The darker pieces, Black. On this site you play Black by default, so you get the first move.
- How is this different from other kinds of checkers?
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Variant Board Kings English / Americanthis site 8×8 one square International 10×10 flying Russian 8×8 flying Each player starts with 12 pieces, or 20 in international draughts. Captures are compulsory in all three, and international draughts adds one more rule: you must choose the line that captures the most pieces.