Board and setup
Checkers is played on an 8×8 board using only the 32 dark squares. Each player starts with 12 men on the dark squares of their first three rows. The darker color moves first, and turns alternate — if you have any legal move, you must make one; a player left with no legal move loses.
How men move
A man slides one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square — forward meaning toward the opponent. Men never move sideways, straight, or backward, and never onto a light square.
Capturing is mandatory
If a man can jump — an adjacent enemy piece diagonally ahead, with an empty square immediately beyond — it must jump. The jumped piece is captured and removed. Two consequences follow:
- Multi-jumps chain. If the landing square offers another jump, the same piece keeps jumping in the same turn, and the whole chain is compulsory.
- You choose between captures, not whether to capture. With two or more jumps available you may pick any of them — English draughts has no rule forcing the line that captures the most pieces. (That “majority rule” belongs to International and Brazilian draughts.)
The old schoolyard “huff” — removing a piece that failed to jump — is not part of the modern rules: the jump is simply enforced, which is exactly what the Boardgammon server does.
Kings
A man that reaches the far row is crowned a king. Kings move and capture one square diagonally in any direction — forward or backward. English kings do not fly: one step at a time, always.
Crowning ends the move. A man that reaches the back row by a jump is crowned and stops there, even if the new square would allow a further jump — the fresh king fights from your next turn.
Winning and drawing
- You win by capturing all enemy pieces, or by leaving your opponent with no legal move (blocked pieces lose the game, they do not draw it).
- Threefold repetition — the same position occurring a third time — is a draw.
- The no-progress rule: when forty consecutive moves by each side pass with no capture and no man moving forward, the game is drawn. Any capture or man advance resets the count.
Reading checkers notation
The 32 dark squares are numbered 1–32, left to right from the dark side's back row.
A quiet move is written with a dash (28-32), a capture with a
cross (9x18), and a multi-jump chains the squares
(1x10x19). Our lesson boards draw these numbers on the squares.
Where to go next
- The English checkers learning path — 12 interactive lessons that make you play each of these rules on a live board.
- The seven variants compared — backward captures, flying kings, and Turkish dama's sideways world.
- Everything checkers on Boardgammon — rated play, AI tiers, and analysis.
Frequently asked questions
Who moves first in checkers?
The player with the darker pieces moves first. Turns then alternate — you must move on your turn if any legal move exists.
Is capturing mandatory in checkers?
Yes. If any jump is available you must jump, and a multi-jump must be played to its end. When several different captures are available, English draughts lets you choose freely between them — there is no rule forcing the longest line.
Can you jump backwards in checkers?
Not with a man — men move and capture diagonally forward only. A king may move and capture one square diagonally in any direction, including backwards. (Variants like Russian and International draughts do let men capture backwards.)
Can a king move more than one square?
Not in English draughts — kings step exactly one diagonal square at a time. Long-range “flying kings” belong to other variants such as International, Russian, and Brazilian draughts.
What happens when a piece reaches the last row?
It is crowned a king and the move ends immediately — even if the crowning square would allow another jump. The new king starts capturing only from your next turn.
How does a checkers game end in a draw?
Two ways: the same position occurring three times, or forty consecutive moves by each side without any capture and without any man moving forward. Running out of moves is not a draw — a player with no legal move loses.