How to Play Checkers: Rules, Moves and Tips
Checkers looks simple, and that is the trick of it. Two colors of pieces, one kind of move, a board anyone can set up in a minute. Yet underneath sits a real game of planning and traps that a child can learn in an afternoon and keep getting better at for years. This guide walks through the rules from the first move to crowning a king, then shares the tips that separate a beginner from someone who wins. You can follow along with a free Checkers game and try each idea as you read.
What is Checkers?
Checkers, known as draughts in many countries, is a board game for two players who face each other across an eight by eight board. Each player starts with twelve pieces and tries to capture all of the other player’s pieces, or leave them with no legal move. It is one of the oldest games still played today, and it remains a favorite because the rules are quick to learn while the play stays interesting.
The goal of the game
You win by taking all of your opponent’s pieces off the board, or by trapping them so they cannot move on their turn. Everything in a game of Checkers works toward that end, whether you are trading pieces to come out ahead or steering the game toward a position where the other side simply runs out of safe moves.
Setting up the board
Place the board so each player has a dark square on their bottom left. The pieces only ever sit on the dark squares. Each player lines up their twelve pieces on the dark squares of the three rows closest to them, which leaves the two middle rows empty and ready for play. Darker pieces or lighter, it does not matter which color goes first as long as you agree, though the tradition is that the darker side moves to open the game.
How to play, move by move
A normal move slides one piece diagonally forward by a single square, onto an empty dark square. Pieces move forward only, never backward and never straight sideways, until they are crowned. That one rule is the whole of ordinary movement, which is why children pick the game up so fast.
Capturing is where Checkers comes alive. When an opponent’s piece sits on the square diagonally in front of yours, and the square just beyond it is empty, you jump over that piece and land on the empty square. The piece you jumped is captured and removed from the board. Better still, if your piece lands in a spot where another jump is available, you keep jumping in the same turn, so a single move can clear two or three enemy pieces at once.
When one of your pieces reaches the far row, the opponent’s back row, it is crowned a king, usually by stacking a captured piece on top. A king is worth far more than an ordinary piece because it can move and jump both forward and backward. Getting a king, and stopping your opponent from getting one, is often what decides the game.
The rules people get wrong
The rule that surprises most new players is that capturing is compulsory. If a jump is available to you, you must take it, and you cannot make a quiet move instead to dodge the trade. This turns Checkers into a game of setting traps, because a clever player can offer a piece knowing the forced jump that follows opens the way to take two of yours back. The second thing people forget is that ordinary pieces cannot jump backward, only kings can, so a piece that has slipped past your line is safer than it looks until it is crowned.
Simple tips to win at Checkers
Try to keep your pieces connected in a loose group rather than pushing one out alone, because a lone piece is easy to pick off while a wall of pieces supports itself. Hold your back row steady for a while too, since those squares are the ones that stop your opponent from crowning a king. Push toward the far side to make your own kings, and always look one move past a tempting capture, because the mandatory jump rule means a free piece is sometimes bait for a bigger loss. Checkers is one of the best two player games for practicing exactly this kind of thinking a move ahead.
Fun variations to try
If the standard game starts to feel familiar, there is plenty more to explore. International draughts is played on a larger ten by ten board with more pieces and flying kings that slide any distance. Chinese Checkers, despite the name, is a completely different game about racing marbles across a star shaped board rather than jumping to capture. Even in standard Checkers you can agree house rules, such as whether a piece must always take the jump that captures the most pieces, which changes the feel of every game.
Is Checkers good for kids?
Checkers is a genuinely valuable first strategy game for a child. Every jump is a small trade off, and reading the board a move or two ahead builds the same planning skill that helps with math problems and with thinking before acting. It is calm and turn based, it teaches a child to win and lose gracefully, and because the dice play no part, a five year old can beat a grownup on a good day. Our other free board games for kids follow the same spirit, keeping the rules of the real game while being quick to start on any device.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to jump in Checkers?
Yes. In the standard rules, if a capture is available on your turn, you must take it. You are not allowed to make a normal move instead. If more than one jump is on offer you may usually choose which to take, unless you are playing a house rule that forces the longest capture.
Can a regular checker move backward?
No. An ordinary piece moves and jumps only diagonally forward. It can move backward only after it reaches the far row and is crowned a king. That is why kings are so powerful and why racing to crown one is such a big part of the game.
How do you get a king in Checkers?
You get a king by moving one of your pieces all the way to the far row, the row closest to your opponent. When it lands there, it is crowned, usually by placing a captured piece on top to mark it. From then on that king can move and jump in both directions.
Once the rules are clear, the fastest way to improve is to play plenty of games and pay attention to the traps you fall into. Set the board up, take turns against the computer or a friend, and put these ideas into practice.