checkers

01Set up and choose the first player

Two players need an 8 × 8 board and 12 counters each. Put a dark square at your near-left corner. Use only dark squares; fill the three rows nearest each player, leaving two central rows empty. Designate the darker side as Black; Black starts. Take one turn each. Your goal is to leave the opponent with no legal move, either by capturing all their counters or blocking them.

Reference: Hasbro — Checkers instructions.

02Move or jump

An uncrowned counter, called a man, moves one dark square diagonally forward into an empty square. It captures by jumping over a diagonally adjacent enemy into the empty square immediately beyond. Men capture forward only in this variant. Captures are compulsory: if any of your pieces can jump, you must capture rather than make an ordinary move.

03Complete the capture

If the same piece can jump again after landing, continue with it until there is no further legal capture. When several routes are available, you may choose any; you do not have to take the route capturing the most pieces. A man reaching the opponent’s back row is crowned, commonly by stacking a second counter. Its turn ends there, even if a new backward jump would be available as a king. A king moves one square diagonally in either direction. To capture, it jumps an adjacent enemy and lands on the empty square immediately beyond, continuing any further jumps; it is not a flying king.

Reference: WCDF English rules, hosted by NCCA.

04Worked capture

On a coordinate board, a man on c3 moving toward rank 8 can jump an enemy on d4 and land on empty e5. If f6 holds another enemy and g7 is empty, it must continue e5–g7. Remove the captured counters. If your man instead reaches rank 8, crown it and stop that turn.

05End the game

Win when the opponent has no legal move on their turn, or resigns. No material tally is needed. Players may agree a draw if neither can make progress. Formal WCDF repetition and no-progress provisions require a record and, in competitions, a referee; use the linked rules rather than inventing a move limit.

06Common mix-ups

Do not play on light squares, skip a compulsory capture, take an ordinary step midway through a jump sequence, or move a new king again on its crowning turn. Agree the variant before play: other forms of draughts allow backward man captures or long-range kings.