Checkers

Play Checkers online free against the computer — the classic board game of jumps and captures, also known as Draughts. You are red at the bottom; leap over the bot’s pieces to capture them and clear the board to win. Simple rules, real strategy, playable on phone or desktop with no download and no sign-up.

How to play

• You play red at the bottom; the bot plays the pieces at the top.
• Tap one of your pieces, then tap a highlighted square to move it diagonally forward.
• Jump diagonally over an adjacent enemy piece into the empty square beyond to capture it.
• Captures are forced, and multiple jumps in one turn chain together.
• Reach the far back row to crown a piece as a King, which can also move backward.
• Capture all of the bot’s pieces, or leave it with no move, to win.

Because captures are forced, you can set traps — offer one piece to compel a jump that lets you take two or three in return. Keep your back row intact early to stop the bot from crowning Kings, and try to advance your pieces in connected groups rather than as exposed loners.

More about Checkers

Checkers, known as draughts in Britain, is one of the oldest board games, with ancestors on boards from ancient Egypt and a form resembling the modern game played in 12th-century France. The version here is English draughts on an 8x8 board; international draughts uses a 10x10 board with flying kings. In 2007 checkers was solved by computer — with perfect play by both sides it always ends in a draw.