Checkers, also called draughts, is played on an eight-by-eight board with twelve pieces a side. You win by capturing every piece the computer has, or by leaving it with no move. Jumping is not optional, which makes the game more tactical than it first looks.

How to play

Red moves first, and you can choose to play red or white when you start. Only the dark squares are used.

On a phone or tablet: tap one of your pieces. The squares it can move to light up. Tap one to move there.
On a computer: click a piece, then click a lit square.

An ordinary piece moves one square diagonally forward. If an enemy piece is next to yours and the square behind it is empty, you can jump over it and capture it. A jump is compulsory. When you can capture, you must. If the same piece can jump again from where it lands, it must keep going. Tap each landing square in turn to finish the chain.

A piece that reaches the far row becomes a king and is marked with a crown. A king can move and jump both forward and backward, one square at a time.

If a player has no legal move, that player loses. After 40 moves each with no capture and no ordinary piece moved, the game is declared a draw.

The levels

Easy: the computer plays almost at random. Undo is on.
Medium: it sees a move or two ahead and tries not to give pieces away. Undo is on.
Hard: it looks six moves ahead, and it takes kings, the back row and the center into account. There is no undo.
Expert: it searches as deep as it can in about 300 milliseconds a move and knows how to play the endgame. There is no undo.

Today's game

Each day there is a Medium game built from the same seed for every player. If you leave in the middle, the game is saved on your device.

Tips

Keep your pieces together. A piece on its own is easy to attack, while a group protects itself because there is no empty square to jump into.
Hold on to the pieces on your back row for as long as you can. They stop the other side from getting kings.
The center of the board is valuable. A piece there can go either way and is harder to trap against the edge.
Use the rule that jumps are compulsory. Giving up one piece so that the computer has to jump into a spot where you can capture two is a classic way to win material.
Before every move, look at the squares behind your pieces. A hole behind a piece is an invitation to be jumped.
When you are ahead, trade pieces. With fewer pieces on the board, an extra one is worth more.
A king is strong, but it can be trapped too. Do not leave it where two enemy pieces can box it in.

A bit of history

Checkers is a very old game, and in Britain it is called draughts. The eight-by-eight version with forced jumps is the one played here.

Questions

Why can I not make the move I want? If any capture is available, you must take it. Other moves are not allowed until you do.

How does a king move? One square diagonally, in any direction. It can also jump in any direction.

Can I play white? Yes. Choose it when you start a game. Red moves first.

What if no one can make progress? After 40 moves each with no capture and no ordinary piece moved, the game ends in a draw.

Checkers