Checkers
One diagonal at a time. Keep an eye on the crown.
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English/American Checkers. Player 1 starts from the bottom. Men move and jump forward; kings move and jump one diagonal in either direction. Captures are compulsory, with any available capture branch allowed. Finish every jump with the same piece; reaching the crown row ends that turn. Select a highlighted piece, then a marked landing square. Arrows explore playable squares; Enter or Space selects and moves. Escape clears an uncommitted selection. U/R undo/redo and P pauses. Fresh game. Fresh computer wins: 0.
Your achievements 0 / 8
How to play Checkers
This game follows English/American Checkers: an 8×8 board, 12 pieces on each side and play on the dark squares. Player 1 starts at the bottom and moves first. Choose Computer with Easy, Normal, Hard or Expert, or Two players to share the board. Against the computer you can play either side.
Move forward, capture when you can
A man moves one diagonal square forward into an empty dark square. To capture, jump diagonally forward over an adjacent opposing piece into the empty square immediately beyond it. The jumped piece is removed. If any of your pieces can capture, you must make a capture: a quiet move with another piece is not allowed. You may choose any available capturing piece or branch; you do not have to choose the route that takes the most pieces.
Finish the jumps and earn a crown
If the same piece can jump again after a capture, keep jumping with it until its route ends. The highlighted piece and marked landing squares show that forced continuation. You cannot switch pieces during the chain. A man reaching the far row becomes a king, and crowning immediately ends that turn, even if the new king could capture backward. From its next turn, a king may move or jump one diagonal in either direction. Kings do not fly across several empty squares, and men do not capture backward.
Winning and automatic draws
You win when the opposing player has no pieces or no legal move. A blocked player can lose even with pieces still on the board. Piece counts show the pieces remaining, rather than a points score.
For this browser version, the game automatically draws when the same board, piece ranks and player to move occur three times, or after 80 completed single-player turns without a capture or a move by an uncrowned man. A capture or man move resets that quiet-turn counter. Jump chains count as one completed turn; a win is checked before a draw. These automatic draws adapt the standard claim-based rules, rather than using a 40-turn house shortcut.
Tap, click or use the keyboard
Select one of your highlighted movable pieces, then a marked destination. During a capture chain the same piece stays selected, so choose its next marked landing square. Kings carry a clear crown. Arrow keys explore the playable squares; Home and End choose the first and last playable square in the current row. Enter or Space selects a piece or chooses the focused destination. Escape clears a selection before a move; it does not cancel a jump that has already started. Use Undo to return a partial chain to its turn start. U undoes, R redoes and P pauses.
Practice, saved games and comfort
In Two players, Undo returns one completed turn or the current partial jump chain. Against the computer it returns your last turn and the complete computer response; an unfinished human chain returns only to its own turn start. Redo restores the same saved path, including a partial chain. Up to 200 pending Redo groups are retained. Restart replays the opening as the same attempt and marks it as practice. New game starts a fresh attempt. An attempt keeps its first final result, and Undo or Restart stays recorded for challenge stars.
Your board, partial jump chain, active time and eight achievements save in this browser when storage is available. A restored game waits for Resume. Pause hides the board and stops both the clock and computer; there is no timed loss. Sound starts off, reduced motion is respected and Full screen keeps the board and controls together. A visible warning tells you if saving is unavailable; keep that tab open to retain the session. The legal saved-action journal has a 20,000-action limit, after which you can choose New game.
Eight attainable milestones
Earn stars for a first complete move, a completed capture, a completed move taking two or more pieces, a crown, a first-result finish, a first-result computer win, a Hard or Expert win without Undo or Restart, and three different fresh computer wins. Local games count toward the applicable play milestones. Reopening, undoing or restarting an attempt does not create additional wins.
The computer uses original searches with fixed thinking limits and considers complete moves, including full capture paths. The levels offer different amounts of look-ahead; they are not a promise of perfect or unbeatable play.