American checkers rules
American checkers, called English draughts in Britain, is the standard game in the US, the UK and much of the English-speaking world. It is the default game on checkers.gripe.
The board and pieces
- An 8×8 board, played on the dark squares only. Each player starts with 12 men on the dark squares of the three rows nearest them. The board sits with a dark square in each player's left-hand corner.
- Black (the darker pieces) moves first, then players take turns.
Moving
- A man moves one square diagonally forward to an empty square.
- A king moves one square diagonally, forward or backward.
Capturing
- A piece captures by jumping over an enemy piece on the next diagonal square, landing on the empty square just beyond. The captured piece is removed.
- Men capture forward only. Kings capture forward and backward.
- Capturing is compulsory. If you can capture, you must.
- If after a jump the same piece can jump again, it must keep going in the same turn (a multi-jump).
- When there is more than one way to capture, you may choose any of them. You don't have to take the most pieces, but you must finish the sequence you choose.
Kings
A man that reaches the far row is crowned and becomes a king. If it got there by capturing, the turn ends there, even if a king could jump again.
Winning and draws
- You win when your opponent can't move on their turn: all their pieces are gone, or every piece left is blocked.
- We call a draw when the same position comes up for the third time with the same player to move, or after 40 moves each with no capture and no man moved (only kings moving).