Rules for Playing Checkers

As with most board games, it is easier and more fun to play Checkers live with an opponent rather than online against your computer. For amateur players it is almost impossible to beat your computer in a game of Checkers, and that can be very discouraging.

Checkers rules are quite simple compared to other board games. Since it is not really classed with the strategy games, Checkers can even be played by young children as early as the age of four or five.

The Checkers board is made up of 64 squares, 8 x 8, with alternating colors of red and black, or, sometimes, black and white. Each player receives twelve round discs. One player gets the black discs, and the other receives the white ones. The color black always goes first, so, usually, the two players toss a coin to determine who will get the black discs.

The object of the Checkers game is to eliminate all your opponent's pieces, or, to create a situation where your opponent cannot make a move. As board games go, Checkers rules are very easy. The Checkers discs move forward on the diagonal on the black board squares only. However, if you are able to get one of your discs all the way to the opposite end of the board (to your opponent's side), the disc is crowned and becomes a King. A Checkers King still moves on the diagonal, but he can move both backwards and forwards.

Moves in the Game of Checkers

There are two types of moves in the game of Checkers: capture moves and non-capture moves. A non-capture move is simply a diagonal move forward from one square to another. A capture move occurs when one player jumps his opponent's disc and, by doing that, eliminates that one piece from the board. As board games go, and perhaps also strategy games, this is the most exciting move a player can make. A player may make multiple capture moves if, after one of them, he is in a position to make another. You must make a capture move even if it means that you are endangering your own disc.

Players sometimes create their own versions of moves. For example, some players claim that once you create a King, the King can move diagonally over any number of squares and not just one square at a time. This gives the King a lot more power.

Checkers as a Member of Strategy Games

Although Checkers is not really counted as one of the strategy games, there are certain things (or strategies) a player can do for optimum play:

-Maneuver your opponent into a position where he will be giving up two pieces in a capture move while you only give up one

-Try to keep the way to your own Kings row blocked so that your opponent cannot reach it

-Try to prevent losses by moving your own pieces in between your opponent's pieces.

Checkers pros who participate in Checkers tournaments claim that this is one of the more superior board games. However, for amateurs and children, it is a game for fun and entertainment.