To play checkers, two players take turns moving 12 pieces each along the dark squares of an 8 by 8 board, and the darker side (Black) moves first. Pieces move one square diagonally forward and capture by jumping over an enemy piece. Jumps are compulsory, a piece that reaches the far row becomes a king that can also move backward, and you win when your opponent has no legal move left.
These are the American rules, also called English draughts, exactly as Poozee's Checkers plays them. Every diagram below was checked with the game's own rules engine, and every number comes from code: from listing every possible opening, or from 500 games between two copies of our Medium computer player. For strategy, see how to win at checkers.
Checkers rules at a glance
| Topic | Rule |
|---|---|
| Players | 2, Black and Red |
| Board | 8 by 8. Only the 32 dark squares are used |
| Pieces | 12 each, on the dark squares of the three rows nearest you |
| First move | Black, the darker side |
| Men | Move one square diagonally forward |
| Capturing | Jump an enemy piece diagonally next to yours onto the empty square beyond. Compulsory |
| Kings | A man that reaches the far row is crowned. Kings move and jump forward or backward |
| Win | Your opponent has no legal move: all their pieces are gone or blocked |
| Draw | 40 moves by each player with no capture and no man moving |
Squares are named from Red's side: columns a to h from the left, and rows 1 to 8 from the bottom. Red starts on rows 1 to 3 and moves up; Black starts on rows 6 to 8 and moves down.
Setting up the board
Put the board between you so that each player has a dark square in the near left corner. Each side's 12 men go on the dark squares of its first three rows, which leaves two empty rows in the middle.
Only the four men on Black's front row can move at first. The men on b6, d6 and f6 each have two squares to go to and the one on h6 has one, so Black has 7 possible first moves. Red then also has exactly 7 replies, whatever Black played.
From there the possibilities grow fast. Listing every sequence with the game engine, after four moves by each player there are 845,931 different move orders, but they reach only 85,340 different positions.
How the men move
An ordinary piece is called a man. On your turn, move one of your men one square diagonally forward, to the left or right, onto an empty dark square. Men never move backward or sideways, and pieces never leave the dark squares.
Capturing: jumps are compulsory
If an enemy piece is diagonally next to one of your men, on a forward diagonal, and the square right behind it is empty, your man can jump over it onto that square. The piece you jumped is removed. And the most important rule of all: if you can jump, you must.
Red has three jumps here, and no ordinary move is allowed:
- c3 jumps d4 and then f6, landing on g7 and taking two men.
- e3 jumps f4 and then f6, landing on e7 and taking two.
- e3 jumps d4, landing on c5 and taking one.
You may pick any jump, including one that takes fewer pieces than another. Red is allowed to play e3 to c5 here, even though both other jumps take two.
Forced jumps come up early and often. In 11 of the 49 positions after one move by each player, Black's second move is a compulsory jump, and in 470 of our 500 Medium games the first capture came on that second move. Over all 500 games, a jump was compulsory on 11.1% of turns, and on 18.5% of those turns there was more than one jump to choose from.
Pro tip: Because your opponent must jump, you can make their move for them: give up a man so that the forced jump lands their piece where you can take two back. Our strategy guide shows the classic two-for-one shot.
Huffing is a house rule, not the rule
Some families play that jumping is optional, but if you miss a jump, your opponent can huff you: remove the piece that should have jumped. That isn't in the official rules, where a missed jump is an illegal move: you're warned and take it back the first time, and a second illegal move loses the game. On Poozee a missed jump can't happen: when a jump is available, the game outlines the pieces that can jump and won't let you move anything else.
Multi-jumps
If a jump lands your piece where it can jump again, it keeps jumping in the same turn, and it can change direction between jumps. Once you start a multi-jump, you have to finish it.
The man on c1 has two routes here. It can take two men, ending on c5, or turn a corner at g5 and take three, ending on e7. You choose, but either way it must keep jumping until it has no jump left on the route it picked. A piece can be jumped only once in a move.
Multi-jumps are common: 307 of our 500 games had at least one, 436 in all. The most any single move took was three pieces, which happened in 44 of the games.
Crowning kings
When one of your men reaches the far row (the king row), it becomes a king. On a real board, a captured man is stacked on top of it to show the crown; traditionally your opponent does this. Reaching the king row ends your turn, even in the middle of a jump.
The new king on d8 can't jump c7 on this turn. Black gets to move first, and it can use that move to get c7 out of the way. In practice this rule rarely matters: our 500 games had 2,371 crownings, 103 of them by jumping, and only 4 of those ended a jump that could otherwise have gone on.
Kings are a big part of most games: our Medium games averaged 4.7 kings per game, and only 6 of the 500 games had none.
How kings move
A king moves one square diagonally in any direction, forward or backward, and jumps the same way. Everything else is as for men: jumps are compulsory, a king can make multi-jumps, and it can change direction between jumps.
In American checkers a king doesn't "fly" along a whole diagonal, as kings do in international draughts. It moves one square at a time, just in all four directions.
How you win: no legal moves
The game is won by the player who makes the last move. You lose when it's your turn and you have no legal move, which happens in two ways: all your pieces have been captured, or every piece you have left is blocked.
Black's men on g3, f2 and h2 can only move down the board. Each one is either stuck behind another black man or facing a red piece on the bottom row, with nowhere to land behind it. Black has three men to Red's four, and still loses.
That's not unusual. Of the 364 games our Medium computers won outright, 55 ended with the loser's pieces all blocked, not captured. Unlike in Othello, there's no passing in checkers: no move means the game is over.
Draws: the 40-move rule
A game is a draw if 40 moves go by for each player with no capture and no man moving: only kings have moved for all that time, and neither side has managed to trap the other. On Poozee the game ends automatically when the count reaches 40 moves each, with the message "Draw: 40 moves each with no capture and no man moved." Any capture, or any move by a man, starts the count over.
Draws are common: 136 of our 500 Medium games were drawn, all by this rule. In 76 of them only kings were left on the board, and 86 ended with the same number of pieces on each side. Because the count has to run all the way out, drawn games are also the longest, as we measured in how long does a game of checkers last.
Poozee and the tournament rules
Poozee follows the WCDF Rules of Draughts, the rules the American Checker Federation publishes on its website (a Word document). They also cover clocks, scoresheets and conduct, and a few rules work differently from Poozee's game:
| Rule | On Poozee | Tournament rules (WCDF) |
|---|---|---|
| Who moves first | Black, the darker side | The dark pieces. Official sets are red and white, so Red moves first |
| Colors | Against the computer, you switch sides every game | Chosen at random for the first game, then the players alternate |
| A missed jump | Not possible: the game only offers jumps | An illegal move: a warning the first time, a lost game the second |
| 40-move rule | A draw, automatically | A draw that a player can claim, with the same conditions |
| Repeated position | No special rule | A player about to repeat a position for the third time can claim a draw |
| Draw offers, resigning | No buttons for them; New game starts over | Both allowed |
| Touching a piece | Pick one up and put it back freely (Escape) | A piece you touch must be played |
| Time | Unlimited | A clock: 30 moves in the first hour, then 15 every half hour |
So the one rule a tournament player would miss is the repetition draw. You can't repeat moves forever on Poozee, though: a position can only come back if no man moved and nothing was captured in between, so the 40-move count keeps running. In 237 of our 500 games a position came up for the third time, and in 51 of them the player who repeated it went on to lose. Under tournament rules, that player could have claimed a draw instead.
Good to know: With perfect play, moving first doesn't win. Checkers was solved in 2007, and perfect play by both sides leads to a draw. Between our Medium computers, though, Black won 221 games to Red's 143. That small edge belongs to whoever moves first, not to Black, as we found in does going first matter in checkers?
How international draughts is different
International draughts is a bigger cousin of checkers. According to the official rules of the FMJD, the World Draughts Federation (Annex 1), it differs in almost every detail:
| Rule | American checkers | International draughts |
|---|---|---|
| Board | 8 by 8 | 10 by 10 |
| Pieces | 12 each | 20 each |
| First move | The dark side | White |
| Men capture | Forward only | Forward and backward |
| Kings | One square at a time | Any distance along a diagonal |
| Choosing a capture | Any jump | You must take the most pieces |
| Reaching the far row mid-capture | Crowned, and the move ends | Stays a man unless the capture ends there |
| Draw by quiet moves | 40 moves each with no man moving and no capture | 25 moves each with only kings moving and no capture |
Playing on Poozee
- vs Computer: Easy, Medium or Hard. You switch sides every game, so half the time you're Black and move first, and your pieces are always at the bottom. 2 Players lets two people share one screen.
- To move, tap or click a piece and then a highlighted square. For a multi-jump, tap each landing square in turn. With a keyboard, Tab to the board, move with the arrow keys and press Enter.
- Hint shows the move the Hard computer would play, and Undo takes back your last move along with the computer's reply. Your game is saved in this browser.
Keep playing
- Play Checkers against the computer or a friend
- How to win at checkers: back-row defense, forced-jump shots and two kings against one, tested by computer self-play
- Checkers opening moves for beginners: the seven first moves, their classic names and the early mistakes that give away a man
- How to play Othello, another board game whose rules we checked with the game's engine
- How to play Connect Four, the rules of another two-player classic, checked the same way
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to jump in checkers?
Yes. If you can jump, you must, and once you start a multi-jump you have to finish it. When you have more than one jump, you can pick any of them, even one that takes fewer pieces.
Can you jump backwards in checkers?
Only with a king. In American checkers a man moves and jumps diagonally forward only, while a king moves and jumps forward or backward. In international draughts, men can capture backward too.
What happens when you can't move in checkers?
You lose. There is no passing in checkers: a player with no legal move on their turn has lost, even with pieces left on the board. In 55 of the 364 decided games between our Medium computers, the loser still had pieces that were all blocked.
How do kings move in checkers?
A king moves one square diagonally in any of the four directions, and jumps the same way, forward or backward. It can't fly across the board as kings do in international draughts.
Who goes first in checkers?
The darker side. On Poozee that's Black; in tournament sets, where the pieces are red and white, it's Red. Players switch colors from one game to the next.