Checkers FAQ

Checkers — also called draughts — is a two-player strategy board game played on the dark squares of an 8×8 board. Each player has 12 pieces that move diagonally and capture by jumping. You win by capturing all of your opponent’s pieces or leaving them with no legal move. CheckersOnline.games is a free version you play against a computer opponent in your browser.

Yes. CheckersOnline.games is completely free and runs entirely in your browser. There is nothing to buy, download, or install, and there is no account, no paywall, and no ads interrupting a game. Open the page and the board is ready.

No. The game is 100% browser-based, built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It loads in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on desktop and mobile without a plugin, app store listing, or installer.

Red moves first. When you choose to play Red you make the opening move; when you choose White, the computer opens with Red and you reply. You can switch sides from the start screen before any game.

This version is single-player against the computer opponent. It is built as a focused practice tool — one board, one AI, instant restarts — rather than a lobby for online or pass-and-play matches.

An ordinary piece (a "man") moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. It captures by jumping diagonally forward over an adjacent enemy piece and landing on the empty square directly beyond it. Men never move or capture straight, sideways, or backward. Kings may move and capture diagonally in all four directions, one square at a time.

Yes, in this version. If any capture is available on your turn, you are required to play a capture rather than a quiet move. If the jump you make sets up another jump with the same piece, you must continue until that piece has no further jumps. This is the standard "forced capture" rule used in tournament American checkers.

No. Only kings can move or capture backward. A man captures forward only. This is why crossing the board to be crowned is such a strong idea — a king’s ability to jump in any diagonal direction roughly doubles its power.

When one of your men finishes its move on the opponent’s back row (the row farthest from where it started), it is immediately crowned a king and marked with a crown. If a man reaches the back row during a multi-jump, the jump sequence ends there — the fresh king does not get to keep jumping on the same turn.

A draw happens when neither side can force a win — most often with kings shuffling with no way to make progress. This game declares a draw automatically after 40 moves by each player with no capture and no promotion, which is the usual safeguard against an endless game.

"Checkers" and "draughts" are the same family of games. This site implements American / English draughts: an 8×8 board, 12 pieces a side, men that capture forward only, and non-flying kings. International draughts is a different variant on a 10×10 board with flying kings and backward captures for men.

No. You can only jump an opponent’s piece, and only when the square immediately beyond it is empty. Your own pieces block both movement and jumps, which is why a tightly packed formation is so hard to attack.

You may choose any of the available capture sequences — there is no rule forcing you to take the line that captures the most pieces in American checkers. Once you commit to a jumping piece, though, you must complete every jump that piece can make in that sequence.

Yes. Press U or the undo control to take back your most recent move; because the computer replies immediately, undo rewinds both your move and its response so you are back on your own turn. Undo is meant for a genuine misclick, not for feeling out every line.

Control the centre, keep your men connected so every jump can be answered, hold your back row to deny the AI an easy king, and trade pieces whenever you are ahead. The computer plays sound checkers and punishes loose pieces, so check for a forced jump against you before every move. The tips page has a full strategy walkthrough.

The opponent uses a negamax search with alpha-beta pruning and a positional evaluation, thinking several moves ahead within a fixed time budget on your device. It will not blunder pieces and it looks for forcing sequences, so it gives a committed beginner a real challenge while remaining beatable with good play. There are no difficulty settings — it is one consistent opponent.

Moves that develop toward the centre are considered the strongest and most flexible openings. Edge moves are playable but give you fewer options later. There is no single winning first move — checkers from the standard start is a known draw with perfect play — so the goal early on is a healthy, central position rather than an immediate advantage.

A shot is a short sacrifice that forces the opponent to jump into a position where you immediately win more material back — often a double or triple capture. Because captures are compulsory, shots are the main way an even game is decided. Learning to see one- and two-move shots is the biggest single jump in playing strength.

Usually because a move opened a diagonal that let an enemy piece land, jump, and then jump again. Before you move, trace each enemy piece’s possible jump path two steps deep. Keeping your men connected means any single jump into your position can be answered by a jump back.

Yes. Your win–loss–draw record, your current and best win streak, your best single-game capture count, and your sound and colour preferences are saved locally in your own browser. Nothing is sent to a server and there is no login. Because the save lives on the device, a different browser or cleared site data will look like a fresh start.

Yes. The layout is designed so the board and its controls stay above the fold on a phone. Tap a piece to select it, then tap a highlighted square to move. The board scales to your screen and every game restarts instantly without reloading the page.

Local saves are lost if you clear cookies or site data, switch browsers or devices, or use a private window that has since closed. Some privacy tools also wipe local storage between sessions. Because the record never leaves your browser, it cannot be recovered from our side.

Any current browser with JavaScript enabled: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on desktop, plus their mobile versions. If the board does not respond, update the browser, allow scripts for this site, and reload.

No. There is no sign-up, no email, and no profile. Your record and preferences stay in this browser on this device. The trade-off is that we cannot restore your history on a new device, because nothing is stored on our servers.