Checkers
Mouse and keyboard
- Click a piece to see its legal moves as dots, then click a dot to move there.
- Or drag the piece to the square you want; an illegal drop snaps back.
- A multiple jump continues from where you landed — the remaining jumps stay on screen.
Touch
- Tap a piece, then tap one of the dots. When captures are forced, only the pieces that can capture will pick up.
- Dragging works too, with the piece riding under your finger.
This panel
- F full screen
- M sound on or off
- ? this list
- Esc close, or leave full screen
- The clock stops while the board is off screen
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Your record
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No games finished yet. Play Checkers and your record for each difficulty shows up here.
| Board | Played | Won | Drawn | Win rate | Best | Fastest | Best run |
|---|
Awards for Checkers
- King me Beat the checkers computer on Hard. Needs: on Hard Locked
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About Checkers
English draughts, three computer levels, and captures you cannot refuse.
Checkers is simpler than chess and much less forgiving. Every piece moves the same way, so there is nothing to memorise — and because captures are compulsory, a move you were forced into is still a move you chose three turns earlier.
The computer plays a real search: at its hardest it looks eight plies ahead with a material, king and advancement evaluation, and it will punish a trade you have not counted.
Also searched for as
- draughts
- english draughts
- checkers online
- play checkers
Whichever name you know it by, it is the same game: it runs in this browser, with no download and no sign-up.
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How to play Checkers
- Each player has twelve men on the dark squares of an eight-by-eight board. Black moves first.
- A man moves one square diagonally forward. It captures by jumping an opposing piece into the empty square beyond it.
- Captures are compulsory. If any capture is available to you, you have to take one — and if the piece you land on can jump again, the move continues until it cannot.
- A man that ends its move on the far row is crowned. Crowning ends the move, even if more jumps look available.
- A king moves one square diagonally in any direction and captures backwards as well as forwards. Long-range flying kings belong to International draughts and are not part of this game.
- You win when your opponent has no pieces left or no legal move.
Strategy that actually helps
- Hold your back row for as long as you can. The four squares on your own edge are the only thing stopping an enemy man from being crowned, and every one you advance is a hole.
- Compulsory capture is a weapon. A piece offered as bait forces the reply, so count the whole exchange before you take: giving one man to win two is the commonest way this game is decided.
- Push in columns, not in a line. Two men supporting each other on adjacent diagonals cannot be taken without a trade; a lone man on an open diagonal usually can.
- Trade when you are ahead. With equal material a trade is neutral, but at eight pieces to seven every swap makes your extra piece worth more.
- Kings are worth about two men, so a race to crown is usually worth a man. If you cannot get there first, block the crowning square instead.
Controls
Mouse and keyboard
- Click a piece to see its legal moves as dots, then click a dot to move there.
- Or drag the piece to the square you want; an illegal drop snaps back.
- A multiple jump continues from where you landed — the remaining jumps stay on screen.
Touch
- Tap a piece, then tap one of the dots. When captures are forced, only the pieces that can capture will pick up.
- Dragging works too, with the piece riding under your finger.