How to Play Checkers

The complete rules, explained step by step · Updated October 31, 2026

Checkers — also called draughts — is one of the world's most popular board games: a two-player contest of moving and jumping on a chequered board that is simple to learn but rich to master. This page is the complete rule set for the version played on Checkers Arena, known as English draughts (American checkers): the setup, how the pieces move, capturing and the all-important forced-jump rule, crowning kings, how to win and how games are drawn — followed by the strategy that turns a beginner into a tough opponent. In a hurry? The rules in brief are right below. When you are ready, play a free game right here on Checkers Arena and put them into practice.

The rules in brief

Two players, twelve pieces each, on the dark squares of an 8×8 board.
Red moves first; players then alternate, one move per turn.
A man moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square.
You capture by jumping an adjacent enemy piece to the empty square beyond it. Captures are compulsory, and a chain of jumps must be finished.
A man reaching the far row is crowned a king and may then move and capture in all four diagonal directions — one square at a time. Crowning ends the turn.
You win by capturing every enemy piece, or by leaving your opponent with no legal move.
A game is drawn by agreement, by threefold repetition, or after 40 moves with no capture and no man advancing.

The goal of the game

Each player starts with twelve pieces (called men). The two sides move toward each other and try to capture the opponent's pieces by jumping over them. You win when your opponent has no pieces left — or when they still have pieces but cannot make a single legal move because everything they own is blocked. So the whole game is a fight: trade wisely, trap your opponent's pieces, and be the last side still able to move.

The board and starting position

Checkers is played on an 8×8 board of 64 squares, exactly like a chessboard. Play happens on the dark squares only — every move is diagonal, so the light squares are never used. On Checkers Arena the board is lettered a–h across the bottom and numbered 1–8 up the side.

A checkers starting position on an 8×8 board: twelve red pieces on the three near rows and twelve black pieces on the three far rows, all on the dark squares, with the files lettered a to h and ranks numbered 1 to 8. — The starting position. Each player has twelve pieces on the dark squares of their three nearest rows. You play Red at the bottom and move up the board; your opponent plays Black at the top and moves down.

Set-up in one line for each side:

Red fills the dark squares of the bottom three rows (ranks 1–3) and moves up the board.
Black fills the dark squares of the top three rows (ranks 6–8) and moves down the board.
The two middle rows (ranks 4 and 5) start empty — that is the no-man's-land where the first contact happens.

On Checkers Arena: you always play the red pieces at the bottom of your screen, and Red moves first. The board highlights the pieces you can move and the squares you can move to, so you never have to guess what is legal.

Setting up a physical board and want to be certain you have it right — which corner goes where, which colour starts, how many pieces in each row? Our checkers board setup guide walks through it square by square, and shows the starting position for Brazilian, international and Turkish draughts too, which all set up differently.

How the pieces move

An ordinary piece (a "man") moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square — forward meaning toward the opponent's side. Red men move up the board; Black men move down. Men can never move straight, sideways, or backward (only kings can go backward — see below).

A checkers board showing a red man with two arrows pointing diagonally forward and up to its two empty target squares, and a black man with two arrows pointing diagonally forward and down to its target squares. — A man moves one square diagonally forward to an empty dark square. Red (bottom) moves up; Black (top) moves down. Each has two possible forward moves here.

If a square is empty and diagonally forward, you may move there. If it is blocked by another piece — yours or the opponent's — you cannot simply move onto it. But if an enemy piece is directly in front of you with an empty square beyond it, something more important happens: you must capture it.

Capturing: jumps are forced

To capture, you jump diagonally over an adjacent enemy piece and land on the empty square immediately beyond it. The jumped piece is removed from the board. A single jump moves you two squares in a straight diagonal line.

A red man on c3 jumps diagonally over a black man on d4 (circled) and lands on the empty square e5, capturing the black piece. — Capturing: the red man jumps over the adjacent black piece (circled) and lands on the empty square just beyond. The captured piece comes off the board.

The single most important rule in checkers: if you can capture, you must. Captures are compulsory. You are not allowed to make a quiet move while a jump is available — you have to take the jump. If two different captures are on offer, you may choose which one to make, but you cannot decline capturing altogether.

Never miss a jump: Checkers Arena enforces the forced-capture rule for you. When a jump is available it only lets you play a capturing move, so you will never accidentally give up a free piece — and neither can your opponent.

Multiple jumps in one turn

A capture can chain. If, after landing from a jump, the same piece can immediately jump another enemy piece, it must continue jumping — all as a single turn. One move can sweep two, three, or more of the opponent's pieces off the board.

A red man makes a double jump: from c3 it jumps a black man on d4 to land on e5, then jumps a black man on f6 to land on g7, capturing both black pieces in one turn. — A multi-jump: after the first jump the red piece can jump again, so it must — capturing both black pieces in a single turn. Chains like this decide games.

Because chained jumps must be completed, a tempting-looking capture can lead you straight into a trap, and a quiet-looking position can hide a double or triple jump. Always look at the whole chain — yours and your opponent's — before you commit.

How long can a chain get? Further than it sounds: nine pieces in one turn is the maximum on an 8×8 board, and the longest jump in checkers shows a position that does it, one jump at a time.

Kings and crowning

When one of your men reaches the far row — the opponent's back rank, called the king row — it is crowned and becomes a king. A king is more powerful: it can move and capture diagonally in all four directions, forward and backward.

A checkers board showing a red king crowned on the top row (marked with a gold crown), and a second red king in the middle of the board with arrows pointing diagonally in all four directions. — A man that reaches the far row becomes a king (shown with a gold crown). Unlike a man, a king moves and captures diagonally in every direction — including backward.

A few important details about crowning:

Reaching the king row ends your turn. A freshly crowned king does not keep jumping as a new king on the same move.
In English draughts a king still moves and jumps one square at a time — it does not fly long distances across empty squares (that is a different variant, international draughts).
Kings are your best pieces. Getting the first king is often a real advantage, because it can chase and capture pieces that ordinary men cannot reach.

How much that extra direction is worth is easiest to feel on a board: this endgame has one red king and one red man against two black men. Equal in number, not in value — open it in the checkers move analyzer and see who the engine thinks is better.

How to win (and draws)

You win the game if your opponent:

has no pieces left on the board, or
still has pieces but is completely blocked — it is their turn and they have no legal move.

A checkers position where Black's only man (circled) is trapped: red pieces block both squares in front of it and the squares beyond, so Black has no legal move and loses. — Winning by a block: it is Black's turn, but the circled black man has no move — both forward squares and the squares beyond are blocked. Black loses even though it still has a piece.

Sometimes neither side can force a win — for example when both players are down to a couple of kings that simply chase each other. That is a draw. On Checkers Arena either player can offer a draw at any time, and the server also declares a draw automatically on threefold repetition or after 40 moves with no capture and no man advancing — so a dead-drawn game can't drag on forever.

Those two rules are practical stand-ins for a question that has an exact answer near the end of a game. Our endgame database holds every position with four pieces or fewer — all 6.4 million — with the result already worked out, so "is this actually drawn?" stops being a judgement call. Two thirds of king-against-king placements really are drawn; two kings against one wins from all but 34 of the placements it can arise in. With best play from both sides checkers as a whole is a draw, which was proved in 2007 — but that says nothing about the position in front of you, and the table does.

Fair play on Checkers Arena

Every rule on this page is enforced by the server, not just the browser, so a game is always legal and fair for both sides:

Every move is validated against the same rules engine before it is accepted — an illegal move simply cannot be played, by you or your opponent.
Forced captures are enforced. When a jump is available, only jumping moves are offered, and a multi-jump must be finished.
The move clock is server-authoritative. Each turn has a time limit that runs on the server, so no one can stall a game indefinitely.
Play the computer or a real person. Face the AI on three difficulty levels, challenge a friend over a private link, or get matched with a random opponent — all free, with no signup required. If you want to know how strong each level really is before you pick one, playing checkers against the computer measures all three and explains how to beat them.

Strategy for beginners

Checkers is far deeper than it first looks. A handful of principles will take a beginner a long way:

Control the centre. Pieces in the middle of the board have more squares to move and attack from; pieces stuck on the edges have fewer options and are easier to trap.
Hold your back row. Keeping pieces on your own king row stops the opponent from crowning a king there. Give it up carefully, not casually.
Trade when you are ahead. If you have captured more pieces, swapping pieces one-for-one simplifies the game and makes your material lead decisive. Avoid trades when you are behind.
Race for the first king. A king's ability to move backward is a big edge in the endgame. Push a piece toward the king row when the path is safe.
Count the whole jump before you take it. Because captures are forced and chain, look at what your move lets the opponent do next. A "free" piece is often bait for a bigger multi-jump.
Keep pieces connected. Pieces that protect each other are hard to attack — if an enemy jumps one, you recapture. Lone pieces on empty squares are targets.

Common beginner mistakes

Moving without checking for jumps. Always ask "can anything be captured?" — for both sides — before you move.
Grabbing every piece on offer. A forced capture can drag your piece into a losing multi-jump. Sometimes the whole point of a sacrifice is that you have to take it.
Breaking the back row too early. Once you move those pieces, the opponent has a lane to crown a king.
Pushing pieces to the edges. Edge pieces can't be jumped from one side, but they also have far fewer moves — you can get boxed in.
Trading while behind. Swapping pieces helps the player who is ahead. If you are down material, keep pieces on the board and play for a trap or a draw.

Glossary of terms

Man: an ordinary (un-crowned) piece. Moves one square diagonally forward.
King: a crowned piece that moves and captures in all four diagonal directions.
King row: the far back row where a man is crowned into a king.
Jump / capture: hopping diagonally over an adjacent enemy piece to remove it.
Forced capture: the rule that you must jump whenever a jump is available.
Multi-jump: a chain of jumps by one piece in a single turn.
Trade: a one-for-one exchange of pieces.
Blocked: having no legal move — which loses the game.
Draughts: the name for checkers used in Britain and much of the world.

Ready to play?

The fastest way to learn is to play. On Checkers Arena the board highlights your legal moves, enforces forced captures, and lets you play the computer on three levels or a friend over a private link — all free, with no signup.

▶ Play checkers now

Prefer a concise reference? See the complete checkers rules, or sharpen your play with the strategy guide.

Prefer a real board? Print one: printable checkers board — board, cut-out pieces and one-page rules.

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