Checkers - The Fundamentals of the Game

Checkers is a game for two persons played on a board marked in 64 small squares of alternate colors (light and dark) in eight rows of eight squares each. Each contestant is provided with 12 disks, called men or checkers; the object is to move these pieces diagonally across the board in such a way as to capture all the opponent's men or block their progress. Because of the simplicity of its fundamentals, checkers is a popular children's game. At the expert's level, checkers ranks in profundity with the complicated game of chess.

The players, designated as black and white, place the board between them so that each has a double corner of dark squares at his or her right. The players arrange their men on the first three rows of dark squares as shown in the accompanying illustration. The notation used in describing the game is based on numbering the squares as in the illustration. A move is denoted by the number of the square from which a piece starts, followed by the number of the square moved to, joined by a hyphen. In the notation, black and white moves alternate, and no distinction is made for color or captures.

Black makes the first move, and white counters. (There are 47 playable combinations of these first two moves.) Players alternate thereafter, moving on the dark squares only. The move is diagonally forward one square, if that square is vacant. For example, black might start by playing 11-15, or 9-13; and white might reply 22-18, or 24-20. A man may not move to an occupied square, but it may jump over and capture an adverse man on an adjacent square, if the square beyond is vacant.

For example, if black opens 11-15 and white counters 22-18, then black must jump 15-22 and remove white's man on 18. White in turn must jump either 26-17 or 25-18, and remove black's man on 22. If a jumping piece lands on a square from which another jump is possible it must continue to jump until it runs out of captures. A player must make a capturing move, if one is possible, but may choose if there is more than one. At the outset all checkers are single men.

The dark squares farthest from a player form the king row. A single man reaching one of these squares is crowned king by the opponent. The promotion is made by placing a second checker of the same color on top of the single one. A king may move both forward or backward one move at a time and jump one or more pieces in either or both directions. If a single man reaches the king row by capture, the turn to play ends with the crowning.

The winner is the first player to leave the adversary without a move, either by capturing or blocking all of his men. A game is drawn when both contestants agree that neither has a prospect of winning.