Fun
Checkers
Classic American checkers on an 8 × 8 board, with international draughts as an option. Jump, crown a king and clear the board.
Your move (Black)
Tap or drag a piece, then its destination. Men move diagonally forward; jumps are compulsory and a multi-jump must be finished. Reach the far row to crown a king, which moves backward too.
Play and explore in your browser. No account needed.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to jump in checkers?
Yes. If any capture is available, the player to move must take one; ordinary moves are not offered until no capture exists. When several captures are possible, American rules let you choose any of them, even one that takes fewer pieces. Once a jump sequence starts, it must continue until the piece has no further jump.
What happens when a man reaches the far row in the middle of a jump?
In American checkers it is crowned and the move ends there, even if the new king could jump again. The king can continue on the next turn. In the international draughts option the rule is different: a man that passes the far row during a capture and must jump on stays a man, and is crowned only if it finishes its move on that row.
How strong is the computer?
Beginner looks two moves ahead and chooses at random among moves that score almost as well as its best one, so it makes mistakes. Casual looks four moves ahead. Strong searches up to eight moves ahead in under a second, and Expert searches as deep as it can in up to about two seconds per move. Every level follows forced capture sequences to the end before judging a position. It is a practice opponent, not a championship program.
Which colour moves first?
In American checkers the darker pieces, Black, move first. In international draughts White moves first. Use You play to take either side against the computer; the board turns so your pieces are always at the bottom. In two-player mode the side that moves first sits at the bottom.
How can a game of checkers end in a draw?
Here a game is drawn when the same position occurs three times with the same player to move. In American checkers it is also drawn after 40 moves by each side with no capture and no man moved, a simplified automatic version of the tournament 40-move rule. International games use the 25-move rule and the short limits for three pieces or fewer against a lone king.
How are international draughts different?
International draughts uses a 10 × 10 board with 20 pieces each. Men may capture backward, kings fly any distance along a diagonal, and you must play the sequence that captures the most pieces. Pieces jumped during a sequence stay on the board until it ends, so they cannot be jumped twice and block the king's path.
About this tool
Checkers, called draughts in Britain, is played on the dark squares of an 8 × 8 board with twelve pieces each. Men move one square diagonally forward and capture by jumping an adjacent opposing piece onto the empty square beyond. Jumps are compulsory, several can be chained in one turn, and a man that reaches the far row becomes a king that moves and jumps backward as well.
The rules engine produces every legal move for the side to move, including branching multi-jumps and the American rule that crowning ends the move. The same engine drives two-player games, move highlighting and the computer, whose alpha-beta search runs in a Web Worker so the board stays responsive while it thinks. Its move counts from the opening match the published perft figures for both rule sets.
Start on Beginner or Casual to learn how forced jumps can be used to pull an opponent's piece out of position, then move up once you are setting those traps yourself. Keeping your back row filled early makes it harder for the other side to crown a king. Undo turn is useful for trying a different idea against the same reply.
Two-player mode is for people sharing one phone, tablet or computer; it does not connect to another device. Everything runs in this tab without an account. The game is not saved, so reloading the page or changing the rules starts a new board.