Checkers (Draughts)
How to play: Click your piece, then click a highlighted square to move. Captures are mandatory: jump over an enemy diagonally to land on the empty square behind it. Reach the far row to crown a King who can move both directions. Win by capturing all enemies or trapping them with no legal move.
About Checkers (Draughts)
Checkers — known as Draughts in the UK and Europe — is one of the oldest abstract strategy games still played at every level of skill. Two armies of 12 disc-shaped pieces stare each other down across an 8×8 board. Pieces move diagonally one square at a time on dark squares only. Capture by jumping over an enemy. Reach the back rank and your piece is crowned a King who can move both directions. The army that captures the last enemy — or pins them so they cannot move — wins.
Our online Checkers ships with three AI levels and a 2-player local mode for couch matches. The Hard AI uses a 3-ply alpha-beta search with material and king-position evaluation, so it punishes loose moves and counter-threats. Mandatory captures are enforced (American rules) — if you can jump, you must.
How to Play Checkers
- Pick mode and difficulty. Red moves first.
- Click your own piece to select it. Legal destinations appear as blue dots.
- Click a blue dot to move. If a jump is available you must take it.
- Multi-jumps are mandatory. Land on the empty square behind a captured piece and check if another jump exists — keep jumping in the same turn.
- Reach the far row with a regular piece to crown it a King (marked with a gold K). Kings move forward and backward.
- Win by capturing all the opponent’s pieces or leaving them with no legal move.
Strategy Tips
- Control the center. Center squares connect to more diagonals and create more capture options.
- Trade when ahead. If you are up a piece, exchange aggressively — fewer pieces on the board makes the material edge decisive.
- Avoid back-row early moves. Pieces on your back row protect against an opponent crowning a King.
- Look for double jumps. Set up forced sequences where one capture leads into another.
- Don’t leave singletons. An isolated piece next to an empty diagonal landing square is a free capture.
- King the right pieces. Crowning a piece is huge, but only if your King has open diagonals to operate on.
A Brief History
Variants of Checkers have been played for over 5,000 years — the earliest known relative, Alquerque, was found etched into the temple at Kurna, Egypt. The modern 8×8 game emerged in 12th-century France, when players adapted Alquerque to the chess board. The mandatory-capture rule and the King were both medieval additions. Today Checkers has been weakly solved (Schaeffer et al., 2007) — perfect play from the start always ends in a draw — but no human plays perfectly, so the game stays alive at every level.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are captures really mandatory?
Yes — under American/English rules (which we use), if any of your pieces can jump, you must take a jump. If multiple jumps are available you may choose which one to take.
What is the difference between Checkers and Draughts?
Mostly naming. American Checkers and English Draughts are the same game on an 8×8 board with 12 pieces per side. International Draughts uses a 10×10 board, 20 pieces, and has flying Kings. Our version is the 8×8 American game.
Why can’t I move backward with a regular piece?
Only Kings move backward. Until your piece reaches the far row and gets crowned, it can only move and capture diagonally forward.
What does Hard difficulty do?
Hard uses a 3-ply alpha-beta search of the game tree, evaluating material count, king count, and king positioning. It also looks ahead to your best response. Easy and Medium add randomness so the AI sometimes picks suboptimal moves.
Can a game end in a draw?
In tournament Checkers, yes — by repetition or 40-move rule. In our casual version, the game continues until someone wins by capture or stalemate, but you can hit Reset any time.
How long does a game take?
About 5–15 minutes for an attentive game, sometimes shorter against Easy AI or longer in king-vs-king endgames against Hard.
Is Checkers solved?
Yes — weakly solved by Jonathan Schaeffer’s team at the University of Alberta in 2007. With perfect play from both sides, the game is a draw. Humans rarely achieve perfect play, so the game remains exciting at every level.
Can I play on mobile?
Yes. The board is responsive and tap-friendly. Tap your piece, then tap a highlighted square.