Checkers

About Checkers

Checkers, called draughts in Britain and much of South Asia, is played on the dark squares of an 8 by 8 board. Each side starts with twelve pieces on the three rows nearest to it. This page plays the English rules, the version most people learn first: pieces move diagonally forward, captures are compulsory, and a piece that reaches the far side becomes a king. Board games like this have been played on chequered boards for close to a thousand years.

This version is written from scratch for Kaamko, with our own board and pieces. You can play the computer at three levels or share one device with a friend. Your wins against each level are kept in this browser only.

How to play Checkers

1. Dark always moves first. Pieces only ever stand on dark squares.
2. An ordinary piece, a man, moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty square.
3. To capture, jump diagonally over an opposing piece that is next to you onto the empty square just beyond it. The jumped piece is removed.
4. Captures are compulsory. If you can jump, you must. If after a jump the same piece can jump again, it must keep jumping in the same turn. When several captures are possible you may choose any of them.
5. A man that reaches the far row is crowned a king, marked with a star, and its turn ends there. Kings move and jump diagonally forwards and backwards.
6. You win when your opponent has no pieces left or cannot make a legal move. If forty moves each pass with no capture and no man moving, the game is a draw.

To move, tap or click one of your pieces and then the square it should go to. For a double jump, tap each landing square in turn. On a keyboard, move between squares with the arrow keys and press Enter to pick up and put down.

Strategy for beginners

Keep your back row filled for as long as you can, because it stops the other side from crowning kings. Move towards the centre, where pieces cover more squares, and advance in pairs or small groups so that a lone piece is never left to be jumped. Because captures are forced, you can offer one piece on purpose to pull an opposing piece into a spot where you then take two. Kings are worth much more than men, so trading one of your men for the chance to crown is usually good. In the endgame, a king in a double corner is very hard to catch.

How the computer plays

The computer searches ahead with minimax and alpha-beta pruning. It counts material, with a king worth more than a man, rewards men for advancing and for guarding the back row, and prefers the centre. Easy looks two moves ahead, medium four and hard seven. It has no opening book or endgame database, so a patient player can beat it on every level.