Checkers on 8×8 with forced captures and multi-jumps. Play the computer at three levels or a friend on one device; online games are in the lobby.
What is Checkers?
Checkers is a two-player strategy board game played on the dark squares of an 8x8 board, where each side moves pieces diagonally forward, jumps over enemy pieces to capture them, and wins by capturing all of the opponent's pieces or leaving them with no legal move. It is also called draughts, and the version played here follows the English rules, the most widely played form on the 8x8 board.
Captures are compulsory, which shapes the whole game. You can force your opponent to take a piece, and that forced capture can pull their piece into a spot where you jump two or three of theirs in reply.
How to play Checkers
Setup: each player has 12 pieces on the dark squares of the three rows nearest to them, leaving the two middle rows empty. In our game Red moves first, then Black.
Moving: an ordinary piece, called a man, moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. Men never move backward.
Capturing: if an enemy piece sits diagonally next to your man and the square right behind it is empty, your man jumps over it and the enemy piece is removed. Men capture forward only. If after a jump the same piece can jump again, it must keep going in the same turn, so one move can take two, three or more pieces. Capturing is mandatory: if any capture is available, you must take one. When several captures are possible, you may choose which one, even if another would take more pieces.
Kings: when a man reaches the far row, it is crowned and becomes a king. Crowning ends the move, even if the new king could jump again. A king moves and captures one square diagonally in any direction, forward or backward.
End of the game: you win when your opponent has no legal move, either because all their pieces are gone or because every remaining piece is blocked. In our game, if both sides make 40 moves each with no capture and no man moving, the game is a draw.
Checkers strategy
Guard your back row. While your back row is occupied, the opponent cannot crown, and men without kings eventually run out of moves. Keep some back-row pieces at home for as long as you can, and move them out only when it gains something concrete.
Control the centre. Pieces in the middle of the board have two forward moves and influence both sides. Pieces on the edge are safe from being jumped from one side, but they have only one way forward and often get stuck.
Keep pieces backed up. A piece cannot be jumped if the square behind it is occupied. Advancing in pairs or small groups, each piece covered by another behind it, leaves the opponent no landing squares.
Use forced captures. Because the opponent must capture, you can give up one piece on purpose to drag their piece onto a square where you then jump two or more. Players call this a shot. Before every move, also look for the shots your opponent could set up against you.
Trade when ahead. If you are one piece up, exchanges make the lead larger in proportion: four pieces against three is close, two against one usually wins. When you are behind, avoid trades and look for a way to crown.
Get a king and use it. A king can attack from behind, where men cannot defend. In the endgame, a lone king tends to hide in a double corner, the corner with two playable squares next to each other; two kings against one still win, but driving it out takes a precise sequence. In blocked positions with few pieces, whose turn it is to move often decides the game, and players call controlling this having the move. An exchange can change who has it.
Checkers and draughts variants
Our game uses English draughts rules: an 8x8 board, men that move and capture forward only, kings that move one square at a time, and free choice among available captures.
Other variants exist and differ in a few rules. International draughts uses a 10x10 board with 20 pieces each, lets men capture backward, gives kings long-range flying moves and requires taking the largest number of pieces. Russian and Brazilian draughts use the 8x8 board with flying kings and backward captures. Competitive English checkers also uses a randomly drawn opening of the first moves to avoid well-known lines.
History of Checkers
Games of jumping pieces across a board are very old, and the modern form on an 8x8 board has been played in Europe for several centuries. In 2007 a team at the University of Alberta led by Jonathan Schaeffer showed with the program Chinook that English checkers is a draw when both sides play perfectly, after years of computer search.
Playing Checkers on Hevagames
Checkers on Hevagames runs in the browser on phones and computers, with no download. Play the computer at Easy, Medium or Hard and decide who moves first, or play two players on one device. Against the computer your pieces are always at the bottom. The page also has an online lobby for games against other people.
Tap a piece, then tap where it should go. Pieces that are required to capture are ringed and pulse, every landing square of the selected piece is marked, and the later hops of a multi-jump are dotted. If you tap a piece that cannot move because a capture is mandatory, the game tells you. When only one piece can move, it is selected for you. On a keyboard, the arrow keys move between dark squares, Enter or Space selects and moves, Esc cancels and Ctrl+Z undoes.
Your unfinished game is saved, and your win streak against the computer and your best streak are kept on your device. The board follows the light or dark theme.
How to play
- 1Choose vs Computer (Easy, Medium or Hard, and who moves first) or 2 Players. Red moves first.
- 2Tap a piece, then a marked square. Men move one square diagonally forward.
- 3Captures are mandatory: jump over a rival piece to an empty square behind it, and keep jumping while you can. Pieces that must capture are ringed.
- 4A man reaching the far row becomes a king and can move diagonally backward too. You win when your rival has no pieces or no legal move.
Controls
Tips
- Keep your back row filled as long as you can to stop rival kings.
- Trading pieces helps when you are ahead.
- Forty moves each with no capture and no man moving ends the game in a draw.
