Checkers
Checkers: Quick Guide and Game Info
Checkers is easy to learn but rewards careful planning. You control 12 Red pieces on a classic 8×8 board while your computer opponent controls the 12 Black pieces. Move diagonally across the dark squares, jump opposing pieces to capture them, and reach the opposite side of the board to turn your pieces into kings. At Evergreen Arcade, you can play against three computer opponents, Marty, Martin and Martimus, with each offering a different level of difficulty. Choose a quick One Off game or settle in for a Best of 3 or Best of 5 series.
Captures are mandatory in our version of Checkers. If you have more than one capture available, you can choose which one to make. And if your chosen piece can make another capture after its first jump, you must keep going. With the right board position, a single turn can capture several opposing pieces.
About Our Checkers
We built our Checkers game around the familiar 8×8 board with 12 pieces on each side. You play as Red and your computer opponent plays Black. Regular pieces move diagonally forward across the dark squares, while reaching the opposite side of the board promotes a piece to a king.
Capturing is compulsory. When one of your pieces can jump an opposing piece into an empty square beyond it, you must make a capture rather than a normal move. If several captures are available, the choice is yours. Once you start jumping, however, the same piece must continue capturing for as long as another legal jump is available. Depending on how the pieces are arranged, that can lead to double, triple or even longer capture sequences.
You can choose between three computer opponents:
Marty — Easy: Marty isn’t a random player in Checkers. He understands the game and makes deliberate moves, so careless play can still get you into trouble. His weakness is strategy: he doesn’t always recognize the strongest position or make the best long term choice.
Martin — Medium: Martin makes stronger decisions and is better at recognizing useful positions and tactical opportunities. You’ll need to pay more attention to what you’re leaving available after each move.
Martimus — Hard: Martimus is our strongest Checkers opponent. He makes more strategic decisions and is better at planning ahead, so obvious attacks and careless trades are much more likely to be punished.
If you’re new to Checkers, start with Marty. Once you’re beating him consistently, Martin and Martimus give you somewhere to go next.
Game Layout and Setup
Checkers is played on an 8×8 board containing 64 squares. Only the dark squares are used during play. Each player starts with 12 pieces arranged across the first three rows on their side of the board. You control Red and move toward Black’s side of the board. Your opponent controls Black and moves toward your side.
Before starting, choose your opponent and match type:
- Marty — Easy
- Martin — Medium
- Martimus — Hard
- One Off — a single game
- Best of 3 — a three game series
- Best of 5 — a five game series
The scoreboard keeps track of the results as you work through a series.
How to Play Checkers
Moving your pieces. Regular pieces move diagonally forward by one square at a time. You can’t move onto a light square or a square already occupied by another piece. Select one of your pieces to see where it can legally move, then choose the square you want to move it to.
Capturing. You capture an opposing piece by jumping over it diagonally into an empty square immediately beyond it. In our game, captures are mandatory. If any of your pieces has a legal capture available, you must make a capture instead of an ordinary move. If several captures are available, you decide which one to take.
Multiple jumps. A turn doesn’t necessarily end after one capture. If the piece you just moved can make another legal capture from its new position, the game requires you to continue jumping with that same piece.
Becoming a king. Reach the opposite end of the board and your regular piece is promoted to a king. Kings are more powerful because they can move and capture backward as well as forward, giving them much more freedom around the board.
Winning the game. You win by leaving your opponent with no way to continue. That usually means capturing all of their remaining pieces, but you can also win by trapping their pieces so that none has a legal move.
How to Win at Checkers
Keep your pieces connected. A lone piece is much easier to attack than a group of pieces supporting one another. Try to keep nearby pieces positioned so that an opponent can’t simply capture one without consequences. Moving several pieces forward together usually gives you a stronger position than sending one piece racing across the board by itself.
Don’t rush your back row. The pieces along your back row help prevent your opponent from reaching the squares needed for promotion. Moving them too early can create an opening for Black to slip through and become a king. Eventually those pieces will need to move, but don’t give up that defensive line without a reason.
Think before trading pieces. Just because you can exchange one of your pieces for one of your opponent’s doesn’t mean you should. Ask what the board will look like after the trade. Will it open a path toward a king? Will it break up your defensive position? Will it leave one of your remaining pieces isolated? When the piece count is even, position can be more important than simply making another capture.
Use mandatory captures against your opponent. Because captures are compulsory, you can sometimes use the rule to control what your opponent does next. You might deliberately leave one of your pieces available to be captured if the forced jump pulls an opposing piece into a bad position. That sacrifice can then create a larger capture for you on the following turn. This is one of the big differences between simply knowing the rules of Checkers and starting to think strategically.
More Checkers Strategy Tips
Look at the whole capture sequence. When several captures are available, don’t automatically choose the first one you notice. Because continued jumps are enforced, one starting capture may lead to two or three additional pieces while another ends immediately. Before choosing, follow each possible route in your head and see where your piece will finish. The final position matters too. Capturing three pieces is great, but you should still notice if the sequence leaves your piece somewhere dangerous.
Stop your opponent from becoming a king. It’s easy to become so focused on your own attack that you overlook a Black piece creeping toward your side of the board. Sometimes blocking an opponent’s route to promotion is more valuable than advancing one of your own pieces. Once your opponent gets a king, you’ll have to defend against movement in both directions.
Make your kings work. A king’s ability to move backward makes it useful for both attack and defense. Don’t automatically send a new king straight into enemy territory. Keeping it in a flexible position can let you threaten pieces, block promotion routes and support your remaining regular pieces.
Look one move beyond the obvious. Before moving, ask yourself what Marty, Martin or Martimus will be able to do next. Can they capture the piece you’re moving? Are you opening a path toward promotion? Does your move force a capture? Could that forced capture actually benefit you? Against Marty, you can sometimes recover from a weak move. Against Martin and especially Martimus, you’ll have a much better chance if you’re thinking at least one turn ahead.
One Off, Best of 3 and Best of 5
Choose One Off when you want a single game of Checkers.
For a longer contest, select Best of 3 or Best of 5. The scoreboard keeps track of your results against Marty, Martin or Martimus as you move through the series.
A series gives you a better idea of how consistently you can beat each opponent. One good game might get you past Martin, but beating him across several rounds is a different challenge.
If a series finishes level because of drawn games, the overall result is a draw.
A Little Bit of Checkers History
Checkers belongs to a very old family of board games, although the modern game shouldn’t simply be treated as identical to every ancient game that came before it.
One important predecessor was Alquerque, a strategy game played on a different board in which pieces moved and captured by jumping. Versions of Alquerque were played centuries ago, and its capture mechanics helped influence later European games that eventually developed into forms of draughts and Checkers. Over time, these games came to be played on the familiar chess-style board. Different versions developed in different parts of the world, which is why “Checkers” or “Draughts” doesn’t always mean exactly the same rules everywhere today.
And Checkers has an interesting place in computer science too. Researchers spent years using computers to analyze the enormous number of possible positions in the game. In 2007, a team led by computer scientist Jonathan Schaeffer announced that standard Checkers had been solved. This means that with perfect play from both sides, the game ends in a draw.
That doesn’t mean you’ll be drawing every game against Martimus anytime soon. Knowing that a perfect strategy exists and actually finding the right move over the board are two very different things.
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