Checkers

Setup

• Players: two. Our practice table is you against one bot.
• Pieces: twelve each, on the dark squares of the three rows nearest you.
• Board: a standard 8 by 8 board, with a dark square in each player’s bottom-left corner.
• First move: decide who goes first, and take turns after that.

How to play

1. 1Step forward. Move one piece one square diagonally forward, onto an empty dark square.
2. 2Jump to capture. Jump an opposing piece next to you, onto the empty square beyond it. The jumped piece comes off.
3. 3Jumping is compulsory. If you can jump, you must. If you can jump again with the same piece, you must keep going.
4. 4Crown a king. Reach the far row and your piece is crowned. That ends your turn, even mid-jump.
5. 5Kings go both ways. A king moves and jumps one square diagonally, forward or backward.

Winning

Capture all of the other player’s pieces, or leave them with no legal move on their turn. Forty moves in a row without a capture is a draw.

Scoring

Our Classic rules: English draughts, with compulsory jumps, one-step kings, and crowning that ends the turn. The 40 moves count both players, so 20 each.

Key terms

Man:

A plain piece. It moves and jumps forward only.

King:

A crowned piece. It moves and jumps forward or backward, one square at a time.

Jump:

Hop over an opposing piece onto the empty square beyond it, capturing it.

Double jump:

Two jumps in one turn by the same piece. A piece keeps jumping while it can.

King row:

The far row from you. Reach it to be crowned.

Forced jump:

The rule that if you can capture, you must. It is what makes traps possible.

Shot:

Giving a piece away on purpose to set up a bigger capture.

Bridge:

Pieces on your 30 and 32 squares, guarding your back row from being crowned on.

Draw:

Forty moves in a row without a capture ends the game with no winner.