How to Play Checkers
Two players, twelve pieces each, one 8×8 board. All movement happens on the dark squares; the 32 light squares are decorative. Each player starts with pieces filling the three rows nearest their side.
Pieces move diagonally, one square forward at a time. The Force Jump rule applies whenever a capture is available: if an opponent’s piece sits diagonally ahead with an empty square beyond it, you must jump and take it. You can’t choose a different move instead. If two captures are available, you pick which one. You don’t have to take the route that removes the most pieces, just any route that includes a capture.
Chains work in a single turn. After a jump, if another capture opens from the landing square, you continue with the same piece. A well-placed piece can clear three or four opponents in one move.
When your piece reaches the opponent’s back row, it becomes a King, marked with a crown. Kings move and capture in any diagonal direction, forward and backward. One thing trips people up: if your piece jumps to the back row while capturing, the turn ends there. It doesn’t continue jumping backward in the same move.
The game ends when one player captures all opponent pieces, or leaves them with no legal move. In competitive play, a draw is declared after three repetitions of the same board position, or after 40 consecutive moves without a capture or promotion, per American Checker Federation rules.
Three Variants, Three Different Games
Most checkers sites give you one set of rules. This one plays three, and the differences between them aren’t cosmetic.
American Checkers, called English Draughts in the UK, is the version most people grew up with: an 8×8 board, 12 pieces per side, and short kings that move one square at a time. It’s also a solved game. In 2007, Jonathan Schaeffer at the University of Alberta completed a computational proof with his program Chinook: two players making no mistakes will always draw. That doesn’t make it easy to beat a real opponent. It just means there’s a known perfect answer to every position.
Brazilian Checkers uses the same 8×8 board and 12-piece setup but replaces short kings with flying kings. A King in Brazilian slides any number of squares along a diagonal, like a bishop in chess. That single rule rewrites the endgame. A lone king can threaten from across the board, and chases become long, precise sequences instead of a slow corner retreat. If American Checkers endgames feel too settled too quickly, Brazilian fixes that.
International Draughts is the competitive standard worldwide, governed by the FMJD (World Draughts Federation, founded 1947). It plays on a 10×10 board with 20 pieces per player and flying kings. The larger board means longer games, more complex openings, and captures that can cross the entire board in one turn. If you’ve ever wondered why some players treat checkers as seriously as chess, they’re playing International Draughts.
Canadian Checkers goes bigger still: a 12×12 board, 30 pieces per side, following International Draughts rules. Games regularly run into the hundreds of moves. Rare outside serious competitive circles, but it exists.
A Short History
The game is old. Boards resembling draughts turn up in Egyptian archaeological sites dating to roughly 3000 BC. A predecessor called Fierges was being played in medieval France by the 12th century, when players moved it onto the 8×8 chessboard it still uses. English Draughts codified the rules in the 17th century; the game crossed the Atlantic with settlers and the name shifted to checkers.
For most of its history the game seemed inexhaustibly deep. Then in 2007, Schaeffer’s proof settled that. Checkers joined tic-tac-toe and Connect Four as games with known optimal outcomes, though unlike those two, the draw isn’t obvious or fast — the road to a perfect draw involves real calculation. The World Draughts Federation continues to govern international competition, and International Draughts remains a serious competitive discipline with national teams and world championship events.
Beginner Strategy
Capturing pieces feels like the goal. It isn’t. Position is.
The most common mistake is chasing captures at the expense of board control. Pieces in the centre can attack in more directions than pieces stuck on the edges. Edge pieces are safer (they can only be jumped from one side) but passive. Active pieces win games.
Getting a king early feels great, but not if it costs two regular pieces to do it. A king is twice as mobile, but you’re trading two for one. Promote when the opportunity cost is low.
The sacrifice trap is what most beginners fall for: your opponent offers a piece you’re forced to take, then jumps two of yours from behind. If a capture looks free, ask what comes after.
Last: keep at least one piece on your back row for as long as you can. It blocks your opponent from promoting and costs nothing to maintain.
The Lessons section goes further — common openings, endgame patterns, and the forced-win sequences that decide most close games.