IanCheckers
March 24th 2008 12:05
Checkers or Draughts is played by two people, on opposite sides of a playing board, alternating moves. One player has dark pieces, and the other has light pieces. Most commonly, the board alternates between red and black squares. Pieces move diagonally and pieces of the opponent are captured by jumping over them.
Rules:
Board - The board is an 8×8 grid, with alternating dark and light squares, called a checkerboard (in the US, in reference to its checkered pattern, also the source of the name checkers). The playable surface consists of the 32 dark squares only. A consequence of this is that, from each player's perspective, the left and right corners encourage different strategies.
Pieces - The pieces are usually made of wood and are flat and cylindrical. They are invariably split into one darker and one lighter colour. Traditionally, these colours are red and white. There are two kinds of pieces: "men" and "kings". Kings are differentiated as consisting of two normal pieces of the same colour, stacked one on top of the other. Often indentations are added to the pieces to aid stacking.
Starting Position - Each player starts with 12 pieces on the three rows closest to their own side, as shown in the diagram. The row closest to each player is called the "crownhead" or "kings row". The black (darker colour) side moves first.
How to Move - There are two ways to move a piece: simply sliding a piece diagonally forwards (also diagonally backwards in the case of kings) to an adjacent and unoccupied dark square, or "jumping" one of the opponent's pieces. In this case, one piece "jumps over" the other, provided there is a vacant square on the opposite side for it to land on. Again, a man (uncrowned piece) can only jump diagonally forwards, and a king can also move diagonally backwards. A piece that is jumped is captured and removed from the board. Multiple-jump moves are possible if, when the jumping piece lands, there is another piece that can be jumped. Jumping is mandatory and cannot be passed up to make a non-jumping move, nor can fewer than the maximum jumps possible be taken in a multiple-jump move. When there is more than one way for a player to jump, one may choose which sequence to make, not necessarily the sequence that will result in the most amount of captures. However, one must make all the captures in that sequence. (Under traditional draughts rules jumping is not mandatory. If it is not done, the opponent may either force the move to be reversed, huff the piece or carry on regardless.)
Kings - If a player's piece moves into the kings row on the opposing player's side of the board, that piece is said to be "crowned" (or often "kinged" in the US), becoming a "king" and gaining the ability to move both forwards and backwards. If a player's piece jumps into the kings row, the current move terminates; having just been crowned, the piece cannot continue on by jumping back out (as in a multiple jump), until the next move.
How the Game Ends - A player wins by capturing all of the opposing player's pieces, or by leaving the opposing player with no legal moves.
You can play Checkers or Draughts for free online from Flyordie.com here. Sign up for free and join one of the open rooms.
*This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. It uses material from the Wikipedia article English draughts.
Rules:
Board - The board is an 8×8 grid, with alternating dark and light squares, called a checkerboard (in the US, in reference to its checkered pattern, also the source of the name checkers). The playable surface consists of the 32 dark squares only. A consequence of this is that, from each player's perspective, the left and right corners encourage different strategies.
Starting Position - Each player starts with 12 pieces on the three rows closest to their own side, as shown in the diagram. The row closest to each player is called the "crownhead" or "kings row". The black (darker colour) side moves first.
How to Move - There are two ways to move a piece: simply sliding a piece diagonally forwards (also diagonally backwards in the case of kings) to an adjacent and unoccupied dark square, or "jumping" one of the opponent's pieces. In this case, one piece "jumps over" the other, provided there is a vacant square on the opposite side for it to land on. Again, a man (uncrowned piece) can only jump diagonally forwards, and a king can also move diagonally backwards. A piece that is jumped is captured and removed from the board. Multiple-jump moves are possible if, when the jumping piece lands, there is another piece that can be jumped. Jumping is mandatory and cannot be passed up to make a non-jumping move, nor can fewer than the maximum jumps possible be taken in a multiple-jump move. When there is more than one way for a player to jump, one may choose which sequence to make, not necessarily the sequence that will result in the most amount of captures. However, one must make all the captures in that sequence. (Under traditional draughts rules jumping is not mandatory. If it is not done, the opponent may either force the move to be reversed, huff the piece or carry on regardless.)
How the Game Ends - A player wins by capturing all of the opposing player's pieces, or by leaving the opposing player with no legal moves.
You can play Checkers or Draughts for free online from Flyordie.com here. Sign up for free and join one of the open rooms.
*This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. It uses material from the Wikipedia article English draughts.
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