PlayRoom

Strategy board game

Checkers

Jump, crown and clear the board.

Checkers, or draughts, for two. Play English, International, Brazilian or Russian rules, or write your own, while anyone else in the room watches.

2 players4 rulesets + custom8×8 and 10×10Spectators welcome
Red and black checkers on a wooden board

What is checkers?

Each player starts with 12 pieces on an 8×8 board, or 20 on a 10×10 board. Move diagonally, jump to capture, and crown a man when it reaches the far side.

Capture every opposing piece, or leave your opponent with no legal move, to win. Repeated positions and long stretches without progress end in a draw.

How to play

Six steps from an empty room to a rematch.

  1. 01

    Take a seat

    One player sits in each seat. Anyone else in the room watches. The first seat moves first.

  2. 02

    Pick the rules

    The host picks English, International, Brazilian or Russian, or builds a custom ruleset.

  3. 03

    Select and move

    Tap a piece, then a highlighted square. Dots are moves; red rings are captures.

  4. 04

    Keep jumping

    A capture can chain. The board shows only the squares the same piece may continue to.

  5. 05

    Crown a king

    Reach the far row to crown a man. Kings carry a gold crown and move further.

  6. 06

    Clear the board

    Win by capturing every piece or leaving your opponent with no move. Then rematch.

Rules

What the server accepts. The board shows only legal moves for your pieces.

Rulesets
  • English: 8×8, 12 pieces each. Men move and capture forward only, kings move one square. Capture is compulsory but you choose which. The darker side moves first, and a man that reaches the far row is crowned and stops.
  • International: 10×10, 20 pieces each. Men also capture backward, kings fly any distance, and you must take the sequence that captures the most pieces. A man is crowned only if the move ends on the far row.
  • Brazilian: International rules on an 8×8 board.
  • Russian: 8×8. Flying kings and backward capture, capture is compulsory but you choose which, and a man that reaches the far row mid-capture is crowned and carries on capturing as a king.
  • Custom: choose the board, capture rules, king movement, backward capture and crowning yourself. Combinations that cannot work together are refused.
Captures
  • Capture means jumping over an adjacent opposing piece to the empty square behind it. A flying king may jump from a distance and land on any empty square past the piece.
  • A capture continues while the same piece can jump again. No other piece may move in the middle of a capture, and a piece cannot be jumped twice.
  • Pieces you have jumped stay on the board until your move ends, so they still block you.
  • Where capture is compulsory, a move that skips a capture is refused with a message. Nothing is lost and it is still your turn.
Missed-capture seizure (optional house rule)
  • The host can turn on the seizure penalty for any ruleset with compulsory capture.
  • If you confirm a move that skips a capture, the move is not played. One of your pieces that could have captured is seized by your opponent, who picks which one when there are several (or it is picked automatically if the host chose that). You then still have to move.
  • If the seizure leaves you with no pieces or no moves, the game ends at once.
Draws
  • Players can agree a draw. Offer once per position; making a move declines an offer.
  • International: threefold repetition, 25 moves each of kings only with no capture, king against king at once, and three pieces against a lone king after 16 moves each.
  • Russian: threefold repetition, 15 king-only moves each, and three kings against a lone king on the main road after 15 moves each.
  • Brazilian: threefold repetition, 15 king-only moves each, three kings against one king after 15 moves each, and king endings with a fixed move count by piece count.
  • English: the rules have no automatic draw, so this game uses a common house limit of 40 moves each with no capture or man move.
Leaving
  • A dropped connection isn't a resignation. Come back within the grace period and the game carries on where it was.
  • If your opponent leaves and doesn't come back, you can claim the win after a minute.
  • Resign ends the game at once.

Settings

The host sets these in the lobby before the game starts.

Ruleset

EnglishInternationalBrazilianRussianCustom

Board

8×8 · 12 each10×10 · 20 each

Capture

CompulsoryOptionalTake the mostSeizure penalty

Pieces

Short kingsFlying kingsMen capture backwardCrowning variant

Colours

First seat moves firstRandom

Watching

Everyone else in the room watches live: the board, the captured pieces and the move list. Spectators can flip the board but can't move or offer draws.

Ready to play?

Start a room, invite a friend, and make the first move.