How to play checkers: a beginner's guide with strategy

Checkers takes five minutes to learn and much longer to play well. The rules are simple: move diagonally, jump to capture, crown your kings. The strategy comes from one rule beginners underestimate: captures are mandatory, so every move you make can force your opponent’s next move, and theirs can force yours. This tutorial plays through a first game step by step, then gives you the strategy ideas that win most games between beginners. Try each idea on the Checkers board as you read.

What you will learn

• How a game flows from the first move to the last capture
• Why the center and the back row matter so much
• When to trade pieces and when to avoid trades
• How to use forced captures to win two pieces for one
• How to get a king and what to do with it
• How to finish the game once you are ahead

If you need the exact rules first, the checkers rules guide explains every detail. Squares here are named like a chessboard, seen from Black’s side: columns a to h from left to right, rows 1 to 8 starting at Black’s edge.

Your first game, step by step

1. Start a game. Open Checkers, choose vs Computer, set the level to Easy and play Black. Black moves first, so you make the opening move.
2. Look at the board. You have 12 pieces on the dark squares of rows 1 to 3. Red has 12 on rows 6 to 8. The two middle rows are empty, and that is where the battle starts.
3. Make a central first move. Tap your piece on c3 and then d4. Pieces near the middle of the board have two forward squares and can support each other, so the center is the natural place to begin.
4. Watch for the first contact. Suppose Red answers f6 to e5. Now your piece on d4 has an enemy piece diagonally in front of it with an empty square (f6) behind, so you must jump: d4 over e5 to f6. Red then has to jump back from g7 or e7. One piece each has gone. That is an exchange.

5. Notice how forced captures work. When a jump is available, the game only lets you pick the pieces that can capture and tells you that you must capture. You can’t decline it, so before each move ask yourself: “Which jump am I offering my opponent?”
6. Bring up reinforcements. Move pieces up behind your front pieces. A piece with a friendly piece diagonally behind it can’t be jumped from the front along that line, because there is no empty landing square.
7. Leave two back-row pieces at home. Try to keep your pieces on c1 and g1 where they are for as long as possible. As long as they stay, Red has a hard time reaching your back row to crown a king.
8. Look for a shot. Before each move, check whether you can give up one piece to make your opponent jump into a square where you then jump two. The diagram below shows the idea.
9. Crown a king. When one of your pieces reaches row 8 it becomes a king, and the move ends there even in the middle of a chain of jumps. Kings move and capture backward as well as forward.
10. Use the king. Bring it back toward Red’s pieces and attack them from behind. Men can’t capture backward, so a king behind enemy lines is hard to deal with.
11. Finish the game. When you are ahead, trade pieces, trap the last ones and capture them, or block them so they can’t move. Either way you win.
12. Play again with the other color. Tap Rematch. The colors swap, so now you play Red and the computer moves first.

Strategy tips for beginners

1. Open toward the center

Early in the game, move pieces from your third row toward the middle squares (d4, e5 and their neighbors). Central pieces control more of the board and are easier to support. Pieces that rush to the side edges are safe from capture but can only move one way, so they are easy to block.

2. Keep your pieces together

Move in groups. A piece with friends behind it can’t be jumped from the front, while a lone piece far ahead of the rest is a target. A compact formation also makes it easier to answer your opponent’s exchanges with a recapture.

3. Guard your back row

Your first row is your opponent’s king row. While you keep pieces there, especially on c1 and g1 (players call this pair the bridge), Red can’t crown a king behind your lines. Move your back pieces last, and when you finally move one, pick one that leaves the rest of the row covered.

4. Trade when you are ahead, avoid trades when you are behind

When you are a piece up, swap pieces one for one. Six against five is a small edge, but two against one is usually a winning ending. When you are behind, do the opposite: keep pieces on the board, avoid simple exchanges and look for complications, because a crowded board gives your opponent more chances to make a mistake.

5. Use forced captures to win material

Because jumps are compulsory, you decide where your opponent’s piece goes when you offer it something to take. That is the idea behind the shot in the diagram: give one piece to pull an enemy piece onto a square where you can jump two. Turn the idea around for defense too: before every move, look at each jump you will be offering and where it would put the jumping piece.

6. Get a king and use it actively

Kings are worth noticeably more than men because they can move backward. Try to make a breakthrough where your opponent’s back row has gaps. Once you have a king, don’t park it in a corner. Use it to attack men from behind, to stop your opponent’s pieces from advancing, and to support your own men on their way to the king row.

7. Learn the basic endgames

With only a few pieces left, kings decide the game. Two kings against one is a win, even when the lone king hides in a double corner (the two dark squares in a near right-hand corner), but it takes patience: use one king to cut off the escape squares and bring the other in to force the lone king out. When you are the one with fewer pieces, head for a double corner and make your opponent prove the win. Watch the move count too: if 40 moves pass on each side with no capture and no man moving, the game is a draw, so the stronger side has to make progress.

Common beginner mistakes

• Moving back-row pieces first. It opens a road to your king row for the whole game.
• Forgetting that jumps are forced. Most lost pieces come from a capture your opponent was allowed to force on you.
• Sending one piece forward alone. Without support it is an easy target or gets stuck.
• Running to the side edges. Edge pieces are safe but passive, and your opponent takes the center.
• Trading when behind. Every even trade makes your opponent’s extra piece count for more.
• Wasting a king. A king sitting in a corner doesn’t win games. Bring it into play.
• Drifting when ahead. Shuffling kings back and forth can end in a draw by repetition or the 40-move rule. Have a plan to close the game.

Your practice plan

1. Learn the rules on Easy. Play a few games against the computer on Easy. Focus on spotting every capture, yours and the computer’s, before you move.
2. Beat Easy as both colors. Win as Black and as Red. Use Rematch to swap colors.
3. Step up to Medium. Medium punishes loose pieces. After each game, think about where you lost your first piece and why. Undo is useful here: take back a move and try the alternative.
4. Practice shots. In every game, look for one chance to give one piece and take two. Then look for the shots your opponent could play against you.
5. Play out the endings. Don’t stop when you are ahead. Converting two kings against one, or three against two, is a skill worth practicing.
6. Challenge Hard and a friend. On Hard, a draw is a good result at first. Then play pass and play with a friend on the same device and teach them the bridge and the shot.

When a rule question comes up during a game, the complete checkers rules has the answer. Ready? Open Checkers and play your first game.