Checkers

How to play

In short

• Tap one of your men, then a square with a dot. A man moves one square diagonally forward.
• If you can capture an opposing piece by jumping over it, you must. The game marks the pieces that have to capture.
• A man that reaches the far row becomes a king and moves any distance diagonally, forward or backward.
• You win when your opponent has no pieces left or cannot move.

Board and setup

The game is played on an 8 × 8 board, on the 32 dark squares only. The board is placed so that each player has a dark square in the bottom left corner. Each player starts with 12 men on the first three rows. White moves first, then the players take turns.

Moving a man

A man moves diagonally forward to the next empty dark square. A man may not move or capture backwards.

Capturing

• Capturing is compulsory. When an opposing piece stands diagonally next to your man with an empty square behind it, the man must jump over it and the piece leaves the board.
• If the man can jump another piece after landing, it must continue. The whole multiple capture counts as one move.
• When there are several ways to capture, you may choose any of them, even one that takes fewer pieces. But when both a king and a man can capture, the king must capture.
• Captured pieces are removed only after the whole move. The same piece cannot be jumped twice, and you cannot jump over a captured piece.

Kings

• A man that ends its move on the opponent’s back row becomes a king. On the board it is shown as two men stacked with a crown.
• A king moves any number of empty squares diagonally, forward or backward.
• A king captures at a distance: it jumps an opposing piece on the same diagonal and may stop on any empty square behind it. If it can capture again from one of those squares, it must stop there and continue.
• A man that reaches the last row by capturing becomes a king only after the move and does not capture further in that move.

End of the game

• You win when it is your opponent’s turn and they have no pieces or cannot move.
• The game is a draw when the same position with the same player to move occurs three times, or when for 15 moves by each player nobody moves a man or captures anything.
• With at most three kings against one king, the game is a draw if nobody wins within 15 moves by each player. With at most two kings, a king and a man, a single king, or three kings against a king on the main diagonal (a1 to h8), 5 moves are enough.

Playing the computer

Before the game you choose the computer’s strength from 1 to 5 and your colour. Level 1 makes many mistakes and suits children. Level 5 thinks the longest. The Hint button shows a piece worth moving, and a second tap shows the way. Undo takes back your last move and the computer’s reply.

Playing friends by code

The Play with friends using a code button creates a room, and a friend joins with its code or QR code. Chance decides who plays White. Each player sees the board with their own pieces at the bottom. You can resign when it is your turn. If someone loses connection, the game waits 45 seconds and then the computer moves for them until they return.

Controls

Tap a piece and then a square with a dot, or drag the piece there. When capturing, a dashed line shows the jumps, and the pieces that will be taken have a dashed red ring. When two ways lead to the same square, tap the square of the first jump first. If a move is not allowed, the piece shakes and the game says why.

With a keyboard, move around the board with the arrow keys, press Enter or Space to pick a piece and play the move, and Esc to cancel. The Flip button turns the board around. An unfinished game is saved in your browser and continues when you come back.

Rules follow the Rules of Czech Draughts by the Czech Draughts Federation. The pieces are redrawn from free images on Wikimedia Commons. Sources are on the Licenses page.