How to play
Checkers
Also known as Draughts, English Draughts, American Checkers, International Draughts, Jeu de Dames
- 5M+ downloads
- On Google Play since 2020
- Free to play
What is Checkers?
Checkers is a two-player game of diagonal moves and forced jumps played on a chequered board. Each side tries to capture or immobilise all of the opponent's pieces, and a piece that reaches the far row is crowned a king with extra powers. Several distinct rule sets are played around the world, and they differ enough that a move legal in one is illegal in another, so agree on the variant before you start.
How to play Checkers
Setting up the board
American/English draughts uses a standard 8x8 board with 12 men per player, placed on the dark squares of the three rows nearest each player and leaving the two middle rows empty. International draughts is the same arrangement scaled up: a 10x10 board with 20 men per player filling the four rows nearest each side. The darker pieces move first in American/English draughts, whereas White moves first in International, Russian and Brazilian draughts.
The rules, step by step
- Play happens only on the dark squares. On your turn, move one piece one square diagonally forward into an empty square.
- Capture by jumping: if an enemy piece sits diagonally next to yours and the square directly beyond it is empty, leap over it and remove it from the board.
- Capturing is compulsory under the standard rules of every major variant, even when the capture turns out badly for you.
- If the piece that just landed can jump again it must keep going, and the whole chain of jumps counts as a single turn.
- A man that finishes its move on the opponent's back row is crowned a king, usually marked by stacking a captured piece on top of it.
- Kings move and capture both forwards and backwards. In American/English draughts a king steps one square at a time; in International, Russian and Brazilian draughts kings are flying, sliding any distance along an open diagonal.
- The variants differ beyond that: American/English uses 8x8 with 12 men that jump forwards only; International uses 10x10 with 20 men that jump in both directions plus a rule forcing the largest available capture; Russian and Brazilian keep the 8x8 board but add backward jumps and flying kings.
How to win
You win by capturing all of your opponent's pieces or by leaving them with no legal move, since a blocked player loses. Draws are common between strong players: they can be agreed, and most rule sets declare one automatically after a set number of moves with no capture or promotion.
Strategy tips
- Advance in connected groups so your pieces defend each other. A single piece pushed far ahead of the rest is usually just a gift.
- Hold your back row as long as you can in 8x8 games, because every gap you leave there is a square where the opponent can crown a king.
- Use the forced-capture rule as a weapon: offering one piece obliges your opponent to jump, which can drag their position into a sequence where you win two back.
- Count an exchange all the way to the end before you commit, since a multi-jump reply often reverses who comes out ahead.
- Trade pieces when you are ahead in material and avoid trades when you are behind, because a thinner board favours the player with more pieces.
Origin and history
Checkers descends from Alquerque, a capture game played on a 5x5 grid that reached medieval Spain through the Moors.
Around the 12th century, most likely in southern France, players moved Alquerque's pieces onto the 8x8 chessboard and confined them to the diagonals; the result was called fierges, and later jeu de dames.
The rule making capture compulsory is generally dated to 16th-century France, where the stricter game became known as jeu force.
The first book on the game in English was written by the London mathematician William Payne in 1756, while the 10x10 International version spread from France and the Netherlands and is still sometimes called Polish draughts.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Under the standard rules of American/English, International, Russian and Brazilian draughts you must take an available jump, and once a chain of jumps starts you must play it out. International and Brazilian go further and require the capture that removes the most pieces, while American/English and Russian let you choose any legal capture.
No. In every mainstream variant an uncrowned man moves only forward, one diagonal square at a time. The difference lies in capturing: American/English draughts also limits men to forward jumps, while International, Russian and Brazilian draughts allow a man to jump backwards even though it cannot walk backwards.
American/English draughts is played on an 8x8 board with 12 men a side, men capture forwards only, kings move a single square, and the darker side moves first. International draughts uses a 10x10 board with 20 men a side, men capture in both directions, kings fly any distance along an open diagonal, and the largest available capture is compulsory. The bigger board and flying kings make International games longer and far more combinational.
It depends on the variant, and this is one of the most common sources of argument. In American/English draughts the turn ends the moment the man lands on the back row, so it cannot jump again until the next move, whereas in Russian draughts it is crowned immediately and completes the same capture as a king. In International draughts a man that merely passes over the promotion row without stopping there is not promoted at all.
Yes, and at a high level the draw is the normal result. Either player may offer one, and rule sets end sterile positions automatically after an agreed number of moves without a capture or a promotion. American checkers was solved by computer in 2007 and shown to be a draw with perfect play from both sides.
