How to play checkers online
This is American checkers, the same game the British call English draughts. It is played on the 32 dark squares of an 8x8 board.
- Setup. Each side starts with 12 pieces (called men) on the dark squares of the three rows closest to it. You have red at the bottom, the computer has black at the top.
- Select a piece. Tap or click one of your men. Every square it can legally reach lights up in green.
- Move diagonally forward one square onto an empty dark square.
- Capture by jumping. When an enemy piece sits diagonally next to yours and the square right behind it is empty, jump over it. The jumped piece leaves the board.
- Keep jumping. If the same piece can capture again from its landing square, it must continue. The game keeps that piece selected until the chain is finished.
- Crown a king. A man that reaches the far row becomes a king, marked with a crown. Kings move and capture both forward and backward.
- Win. Capture every enemy piece, or leave the other side with no legal move.
The computer's last move stays outlined on the board, and its multi-jumps play out one hop at a time.
Checkers rules used in this game
Both the game against the computer and online games follow the same standard American rules:
| Rule | How it works here |
|---|---|
| Captures | Mandatory. If any of your pieces can jump, you must jump. With several jumps available, you choose which one. |
| Multi-jumps | A capturing piece keeps jumping while it can, in the same turn. |
| Men | Move and capture one square diagonally forward only. |
| Kings | Move and capture one square diagonally in all four directions. No flying kings. |
| Crowning | A man crowned during a jump ends the turn there, even if the new king could jump again. |
| Draw | After 50 moves by each side with only king moves, no capture and no man moved, the game is a draw. |
| Who starts | Red always moves first. Against the computer you are red. |
Play checkers vs the computer: Easy, Medium or Hard
The computer opponent searches ahead through the possible replies before it moves, and the level decides how deep and how carefully it looks. Your choice is remembered, and changing it starts a fresh game.
| Level | How it plays | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | Looks only a couple of moves ahead and regularly makes loose moves you can punish. | Learning the rules, kids, a quick relaxed game |
| Medium | Looks several moves ahead, spots most traps and rarely gives pieces away. | Casual players who know the basics |
| Hard | Searches much deeper, never plays a deliberate mistake and converts a lead into a win. | Experienced players who want a real fight |
Wins are counted on your profile and on the checkers leaderboard, which ranks players by total wins.
Checkers strategy: tips that win games
- Take the center early. Pieces in the middle have two forward squares to choose from and support each other.
- Guard your back row. Your home row is where the opponent crowns. Keeping two back pieces in place until the middle game stops early kings.
- Advance in pairs. A piece with a friend diagonally behind it cannot be jumped from the front.
- Check their jumps before every move. Ask what the square you leave and the square you land on make possible for the opponent. Most lost pieces come from skipping this step.
- Use forced captures. Since jumping is mandatory, you can offer one piece to drag an enemy man onto a square where you then take two back.
- Trade when you are ahead. Each even trade makes your extra piece count for more. When you are behind, keep pieces on the board and look for a blockade.
- Crown with a plan. A king is worth far more than a man, but a single piece racing up the side alone often gets trapped before it gets there.
- Use kings from behind. In the endgame, kings attack men from the back where they cannot defend. Two kings together can trap a lone king in a corner.
Checkers with friends and online players
Every game starts with a choice of opponent:
- Play online to be matched with whoever is available in a few seconds.
- Play with a friend to get a private link. Send it in any chat app, and the game begins as soon as your friend opens it. Nobody needs an account.
- Play the computer at Easy, Medium or Hard, offline and at your own pace.
Online, the first player takes red and moves first, and each player always sees their own pieces at the bottom of the board. A side chat has quick messages such as "Good luck!" and "Nice move!", and you can resign a lost position or ask for a rematch when the game ends. If your connection drops, the site offers to take you back into the unfinished match.
Checkers on your phone or tablet
The board scales to fit a phone screen in portrait, and every move is two taps: the piece, then the green square. During a multi-jump the jumping piece stays selected, so you just keep tapping the next landing square. A game against the computer is saved as you play, even halfway through a chain of jumps, so closing the tab or losing signal on the train does not cost you the position. For one-tap access you can add NitroPlayer to your home screen.
A short history of checkers and draughts
Capture games on a grid are very old. The diagonal jumping game on a checkered board took shape in Europe around the twelfth century and spread widely over the following centuries. In the United States it is called checkers, in Britain draughts.
Checkers was also a milestone for computers. In 2007 a research team at the University of Alberta announced that the 8x8 game had been solved: with perfect play from both sides, it ends in a draw.
More board games to try
Like planning a few moves ahead? Flip discs in Reversi online, line up four in Connect 4, or sharpen your tactics with rated chess puzzles.
