- klyo games
- Game rules
- Checkers
Game rules
Checkers rules
Checkers is a game for two players on the dark squares of a board. Pieces move diagonally, you capture by jumping, and a piece that reaches the far side becomes a king. Checkers has several variants: below are the rules of checkers on klyo, played on an 8 by 8 board.
How do you set up a checkers board?
The board has 8 by 8 squares, and the game is played only on the dark squares. Each player places twelve pieces on the dark squares of the three rows nearest to them. The two middle rows start empty.
How do checkers pieces move?
An ordinary piece moves one square diagonally forward, onto an empty dark square. Players take turns.
How do you capture in checkers?
You capture by jumping diagonally over an opponent's piece right next to you onto the empty square right behind it. The captured piece leaves the board. Ordinary pieces capture both forwards and backwards.
- Capturing is compulsory: if you can capture, you must.
- If you have several options, you must choose the one that captures the most pieces.
- After one jump, if another jump is possible, the move continues: this is a multiple capture.
- Captured pieces leave the board only after the whole move ends, and until then they cannot be jumped a second time.
When does a piece become a king and how does it move?
A piece that ends its move on the last row on the opponent's side becomes a king. A king moves diagonally any number of empty squares, forwards and backwards, and captures from a distance in the same way, jumping an opponent's piece onto any empty square behind it.
How do you win at checkers and when is it a draw?
You win when your opponent has lost all their pieces or has no legal move left. The game is a draw when the same position appears three times with the same player to move, or when both sides make fifteen moves each with kings only, without a capture and without moving an ordinary piece.
How do the checkers variants differ?
International draughts is played on a 10 by 10 board with twenty pieces each and the same capture rules: compulsory, backwards too and taking as many pieces as possible, with kings that move many squares. English checkers uses an 8 by 8 board, but ordinary pieces capture only forwards and the king moves one square at a time. On klyo you can play checkers on an 8 by 8 board against the computer on three levels, with two people on one device or online.
Play Checkers for free
You know the rules, now play. Checkers runs free in your browser, on a phone and a computer, with nothing to install and no account.