Checkers

Overview

Checkers — draughts outside North America — is a two-player game of diagonal captures on an 8×8 board. You win by capturing every enemy piece, or by leaving your opponent with no legal move.

These rules are for the standard American checkers / English draughts game, checked against the World Checkers Draughts Federation's Rules of Draughts. Rule numbers below are the WCDF's. International draughts differs substantially and is covered at the end.

1. Setup

Place the board so each player has a dark square on their near left and a light square on their right (Rule 1.4). Tournament boards are green and white.

Each player takes twelve pieces and fills the dark squares of the three rows closest to them. All play happens on the dark squares only.

The player with the darker pieces moves first. The WCDF rules call the pieces Red and White, and "the first move in each game is made by the player with the Red men" (1.13). Players alternate colours between games.

2. Movement

A plain piece moves one square diagonally forward to an empty dark square.

• It cannot move backward.
• It cannot move sideways.
• It cannot move straight ahead.

Every move in checkers is diagonal, without exception. That single fact answers most beginner confusion — the board's light squares are never used at all.

3. Capturing

If an enemy piece sits diagonally adjacent and the square directly beyond it is empty, you jump over it and remove it from the board.

Capturing is compulsory

If a capture is available, you must take it. When several captures are available you may choose which — even if another would take more pieces.

Multiple jumps

Yes, you can double jump — and you must. If the piece that just landed can jump again, it is required to continue. A single turn can chain three, four or more captures.

The captured pieces are removed at the end of the sequence, and a piece may be jumped only once in a multiple jump (Rule 1.20).

Missing a capture is an illegal move: the first time, the player is cautioned and the move taken back; a further illegal move in the same game forfeits it (Rule 1.25). But if the opponent makes their next move without objecting, the illegal move stands (1.26).

Can plain pieces capture backwards?

Often asked as whether a piece can eat backwards — "eat", "jump" and "capture" all mean the same thing here.

No, not in American checkers. A plain piece captures only in the two forward diagonal directions, the same directions it moves. It cannot eat backwards, sideways, or straight ahead.

This is the single biggest difference between rule sets. In International draughts, plain pieces can capture backwards, which makes the game far more tactical. Agree which you are playing before you start — it changes everything.

4. Kings

A piece reaching the far row is crowned by stacking a captured piece on top.

A king moves and captures diagonally both forward and backward.

Crowning ends your turn. A newly promoted king cannot continue a jump sequence until your next turn — a rule that costs people games regularly.

5. Winning and drawing

You win when your opponent has no pieces left, or has pieces but no legal move.

A draw (Rule 1.32) happens when both players agree, or when a player can show the referee that:

• their next move would create the same position for the third time, or
• over each player's previous 40 moves, no uncrowned man has advanced towards the king row and no piece has been taken.

Touch move: if you touch one of your pieces on your turn you must play it, unless you warned your opponent you were adjusting it (1.23).

6. Variants

The WCDF document covers English draughts only; this table is orientation, not part of the check.

Variant	Board	Plain pieces capture backwards	Kings
American / English	8×8, 12 pieces	No	Move one square
International	10×10, 20 pieces	Yes	Fly any distance
Brazilian	8×8, 12 pieces	Yes	Fly any distance
Russian	8×8, 12 pieces	Yes	Fly, and crown mid-jump
Turkish	8×8, 16 pieces	Orthogonal, not diagonal	Fly

Flying kings — kings that move any distance along a diagonal — belong to International and most other variants, not to the 8×8 American game.

Commonly argued

• Plain pieces cannot capture or eat backwards in American checkers. They can in International, Brazilian and Russian. This is the number one argument.
• You must take a capture when one is available. Under WCDF rules, missing one gets a caution and the move taken back, then a forfeit for a repeat. There's no "huffing", where the opponent removes the piece that should have captured.
• The darker pieces (Red, in WCDF terms) move first.
• Double jumps are compulsory, not optional, once the sequence begins.
• Pieces never move sideways or straight ahead. Diagonals only.
• Crowning ends the turn. You cannot promote and keep jumping.
• Kings move one square in the standard 8×8 game. Flying kings are a different variant.