Checkers

Checkers—called draughts in British English—is a two-player strategy board game where identical pieces move forward and must capture an opponent’s piece by jumping over it. The game grew out of alquerque, and its name comes from the checkered board it’s played on; “draughts” comes from the verb “to draw” or “to move.”

The most common versions in English-speaking countries are American checkers (also known as English draughts) on an 8×8 board, along with Russian, Turkish, and Armenian draughts, all also on 8×8 boards. International draughts uses a 10×10 board and is widely played worldwide. Other variants, like Canadian checkers and Malaysian/Singaporean checkers (called dam locally), use a 12×12 board.

In 2007, a team of Canadian computer scientists led by Jonathan Schaeffer weakly solved American checkers. From the standard starting position, perfect play by both sides leads to a draw.

**General rules** Two players sit on opposite sides of the board. One has dark pieces (usually black), the other light pieces (usually white or red). The player with the darker pieces moves first, and turns alternate. No one can move the opponent’s pieces. A move consists of sliding a piece one square diagonally to an empty square. At the start, all pieces move only forward.

If a player’s piece has an opponent’s piece diagonally ahead, and the square just beyond it is empty, that piece may be captured—and in most official rules, must be captured—by jumping over it. The captured piece is then removed. Only the dark squares are used, and a piece can only move to an unoccupied square. When a capture is possible, it’s mandatory in most official rules. If a player fails to capture, the opponent can remove the offending piece as a penalty (sometimes called a muffin); if multiple such positions exist, the player forfeits pieces that can’t be moved. In nearly all variants, a player with no legal move loses—either because they have no pieces left or all their pieces are blocked by the opponent.

Checkers is also played online, often through free apps on the App Store and Google Play Store.

**Pieces**

**Man** An uncrowned piece, called a man, moves one square forward diagonally and captures by jumping over an opponent’s piece and landing on the next square. Multiple captures can happen in one turn if the same piece makes successive jumps; these jumps can zigzag (change direction). In American checkers and Spanish draughts, men can only jump forward. In international and Russian draughts, men can jump both forward and backward.

**King** When a man reaches the farthest row forward (the kings row or crown head), it becomes a king. This is marked by stacking another piece on top. A king gains extra powers: in international checkers, it can move any number of squares at a time; it can move backward; and in variants where men can’t, it can capture backward. Like a man, a king can make successive jumps in one turn, as long as each jump captures an enemy piece.

In international draughts, kings (sometimes called flying kings) can move any number of squares forward or backward. They can capture an opposing man from any distance by jumping to any empty square just beyond it. Because jumped pieces stay on the board until the turn ends, a flying king might be blocked from further captures by a piece it already jumped. Flying kings aren’t used in American checkers; there, a king’s only advantage is the ability to move and capture backward.

**Naming** In most non-English languages, checkers is called *dame*, *dames*, *damas*, or a similar term meaning “ladies.” The pieces are usually called men, stones, or “peón” (pawn). Promoted pieces (kings) are called dames or ladies. In these languages, the queen in chess or card games often shares the same name as the checkers king. For example, in Greek, checkers is *ντάμα* (dama), which is also a term for the queen in chess.

**History**

**Ancient origins** The origins of checkers are uncertain. Popular stories trace it back thousands of years to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, but these claims need careful examination. Archaeological finds in Ur (in present-day Iraq) uncovered game boards from around 3000 BCE, but those were the Game of Ur—a race game using seven markers and three tetrahedral dice, more like backgammon than checkers. The jumping and capturing that define draughts are absent.

Egyptian sources also cause confusion. The British Museum holds ancient Egyptian checker-patterned boards found with pieces in burial chambers, and games using these boards were played by the pharaoh Hatshepsut. Some sources point to carvings at the temple of Kurna, supposedly from 1400 BC, as evidence of the game’s early existence.