♟️ Checkers

How to play

Checkers is the classic game of diagonal warfare on an 8×8 board, and this version pits you — the Red pieces at the bottom — against a computer opponent playing Black. You move first. Ordinary pieces slide one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square, and you win by capturing all of the opponent’s pieces — or by leaving them with no legal move at all. Captures happen by jumping: hop over an adjacent enemy piece into the empty square directly behind it, and the jumped piece leaves the board. Jumps can chain into multi-jumps when several captures line up in a row, and captures are compulsory — if you have a jump available, the rules require you to take it. A piece that reaches the far edge of the board is crowned a king and can then move and capture diagonally in both directions. The game is a draw if 40 moves pass without a single capture, or if both sides are reduced to a lone king.

Controls

• Mouse / touch: tap one of your red pieces to select it — every square it can legally move to glows green. Tap a glowing square to complete the move. Tap the selected piece again to deselect it.
• Turn flow: after your move, the computer thinks for a moment and then moves automatically. The turn banner above the board always tells you whose move it is.
• New Game resets the board to the starting position with you to move.

Tips & strategy

• Because captures are forced, never leave a piece hanging. Before every move, ask: if I go here, can the computer jump me next turn? — the glowing legal moves make it easy to double-check.
• Race for kings. A crowned piece controls both directions and is far harder to trap, so push a pawn toward the far row early while keeping defenders nearby.
• Sacrifice with purpose. Offering a piece to force the computer into a capture can open a multi-jump that wins back two or three pieces at once — count the full sequence before you commit.
• Keep your back row stocked. Pieces on your home row can never be jumped from behind, so they make perfect anchors while your kings roam.

Scoring

Each captured enemy piece scores 10 points, shown in the HUD. A multi-jump that takes three pieces in one turn is worth 30 in a single move. The score tracks your capture count across the whole game — there is no bonus for a draw, so play to win. Beating the computer with the fewest lost pieces is the real achievement.