Checkers
Checkers takes about a minute to explain and considerably longer to stop losing at. Twelve pieces a side move diagonally forward; captures are forced, so a piece you leave hanging is a piece your opponent has to take — which is how a single careless move turns into a four-jump chain across the board. Reach the far row and your piece is crowned a king that moves in both directions, and the endgame usually turns on who got there first. Boxless runs it two-player on your own devices, with a bot to practise against when there is nobody to beat.
- Players
- 2
- Playing time
- 20 min
- Ages
- 6 to adult
- Hidden
- Nothing
How it's played
Twelve pieces each, on a board of sixty-four squares — of which only half are ever used. Everything happens on the dark diagonal, and a piece that starts on it can never leave it.
Half a board, and it starts nearly full
The light squares are scenery. Pieces move one square diagonally, which means they only ever land on another dark square — so the real playing surface is thirty-two squares, and at the opening only eight of them are empty.
That is why the first few moves feel cramped and the game opens out so suddenly. Every capture takes a piece off the board and frees two squares at once.
squares on the board, and they are not all the same
dark squares — the only ones a piece can ever stand on
pieces at the start, twelve to a side
playable squares free when the game begins
If you can take, you must
The quiet move you were planning does not get rejected. It is never offered — the game checks for a capture first, and when it finds one it stops generating anything else.
What you can see
Every quiet move on the board
6 moves that look perfectly legal
Every red piece that has somewhere to step, and some have two. A beginner reads the position and picks the one they like the look of.
What you may do
The only move the game offers
1 move — this one, or nothing
One red piece can jump, so every other option vanishes. The choice was never yours to make.
And a chain is one move, not several. The game works out the whole sequence before you touch anything and matches your move by where it ends, so a run of jumps cannot be abandoned partway through for a quieter square. Red's move above is worth two pieces and there was never an alternative to it.
Reach the far row
and turn around.
A man that lands on the opponent's back row is crowned, and a king moves and captures in both directions. It is the only promotion in the game and it usually decides it.
It moves both ways
A man only ever moves toward the far side. A king moves and captures forward and backward, which roughly doubles what it threatens.
Crowning ends your run
A chain of jumps normally has to be played out. Land on the back row and the crown goes on and your turn is over — even if another capture was sitting right there.
There is nothing above king
A king that crosses back to its own home row is just a king again. The promotion happens once and the piece cannot be demoted.
And there are four ways for a game to end, only one of which is running out of pieces.
You have nothing left
The obvious one. Every piece captured and the game is over.
You have pieces and no move
Boxed in, blocked, or with every diagonal occupied — the game checks for a legal move before your turn, and finding none ends it against you with your pieces still on the board.
Eighty moves, no capture
The stall-breaker. If nothing is taken for eighty moves the game is called — and it does not end level: whoever has more pieces takes it.
You leave
Forfeit hands the game to the other player. There is no draw offer and no resignable position — only this.
If the room liked this
Competitive two-player solitaire! Race to play cards on shared foundations.
Race to play cards faster than your opponent. No turns, no waiting, pure reflexes!