How to play Checkers
Checkers is a board game for two. You move your checkers on a slant across the dark squares and jump over the other player's checkers to take them. Take them all, or leave them no move, to win.
- Ages 6+
- 2 players
- About 20 minutes
- You need: a checkerboard, 12 dark and 12 light checkers
Easy rules, to read aloud
- Put your twelve checkers on the dark squares of the three rows nearest you.
- The dark checkers go first, then you take turns.
- Move one checker forward on a slant, to the next empty dark square.
- Jump over the other player's checker to take it off the board.
- If you can jump, you have to jump.
- Reach the far row and your checker becomes a king. Kings go backward too.
- Take all their checkers, or leave them stuck, and you win.
The full rules
- Put the board between the two players. Each player sets their 12 checkers on the dark squares of the three rows closest to them. Only the dark squares are ever used.
- The player with the darker checkers moves first. After that, take turns.
- A plain move takes one checker one square forward on a slant, onto an empty dark square next to it.
- A jump: when the other player's checker sits on a slant next to yours and the square just past it is empty, hop over it into that square and take their checker off the board.
- Jumping is a must. If you can jump, you have to, even when it leaves you in a bad spot. If you have more than one jump, you choose which one.
- If your checker lands where it can jump again, it keeps jumping in the same turn, and it may change direction. Finish every jump in the line you chose.
- When a checker reaches the far row, it is crowned: put a second checker of its color on top. That ends the move. A king moves and jumps backward as well as forward.
- Any checker, a plain one or a king, may jump a king.
How to win: You win when the other player has no checkers left, or none of their checkers can move. If neither of you can win, agree to call it a draw.
Tips
- Before you move, look for a jump you would be giving the other player on their next turn.
- A must-jump can be a trap: set up a move that makes them jump into a spot where you can jump back twice.
- Kings are strong: try to crown one, and keep a few checkers on your back row so the other player cannot.
What it practises
thinking ahead, seeing patterns on a board, taking turns, following rules.
Other ways to play
- Huffing. An old way: jumping is not a must, but if you miss a jump, the other player may take the checker that could have jumped off the board.
- Keep going as a king. A checker that becomes a king during a jump may carry on jumping in the same turn.
About the game
In 2007 a team of Canadian computer scientists led by Jonathan Schaeffer showed that two perfect players always end checkers in a draw.
You may also hear it called Draughts, or know a boxed game like it. This page is about the traditional game, which anyone may play.
The age is our own suggestion: Peabody's suggestion (moving on a slant and seeing a jump; the Wikipedia page gives no age). Sources we read: Wikipedia: English draughts, Britannica: Checkers. Every word here is Peabody's own. Checked .