Rules - Checkers Checkers Rules These are the rules for Standard American Checkers. These rules are a compilation of the rules given by the references and differences between authors are noted. The American Checkers Federation maintains the standard for the current rules. The Board The checkerboard has 64 alternating light and dark squares. The game is played on the dark squares. Official tournament checker boards are 16 inches wide with alternating green and buff squares. The board should be placed so that there is a light corner square nearest each player’s right-hand side and a dark corner square nearest each player’s left-hand side. Pieces Each player starts out with 12 playing pieces. One player has light colored pieces (called “white”) and the other has dark pieces (called “black” although the pieces may actually be red). Each player starts with their pieces laid out on the 12 dark squares nearest him or her. Official tournament checker pieces are one and one quarter to one and a half inches in diameter. First Move The player with the black pieces moves first. Randomly determine who gets the black pieces first. Use a coin toss (many authors say to “cast lots”). When playing a series of games, the players alternate who gets the black pieces.

Time Limits In official games, five minutes are allowed for each move. In the case where there is only one possible jump available, the player has only one minute in which to make it. The player needs to be made aware that the time limit has been reached. Then, if the player still has not moved after another minute, that player loses the game. Touching Pieces Before the first move is made, either player can adjust the position of any piece on the board. After the first move, no player can adjust any piece without “intimation.” In other words, you just need to say you’re going to adjust a piece before you do it. The player who adjusts a piece without intimation can be warned for the first offence, but will forfeit the game on the second offence. If the player whose move it is touches a piece that can be played, the player must move that piece or forfeit the game. If any part of a playable piece is moved over the angle of its square, the piece must be played in that direction. When the player’s hand is withdrawn from the board, the move is ended. Jumps Pask , p.122, states, “All jumping moves are compulsory.” Every opportunity to jump must be taken.

In the case where there are different jump sequences available, the player may chose which sequence to make, whether it results in the most pieces being taken or not. Hopper , p. 102 and Pike , p. 113 both mention the “huff” or “blow.” Hopper says it is obsolete. Pike says it has been abolished. The idea of the huff was that if a player refused to make an available jump, the opposing player could remove the piece that should have jumped. In modern checkers, all jumps must be taken. Reinfeld does not mention forced jumps in his rules, however, elsewhere in the book, p. 18, he makes it clear that “In checkers, captures are compulsory.” In American checkers, a jump must be made only over an adjacent piece. A piece cannot jump over empty squares. Although no one actually says so, it is strongly implied that single pieces cannot jump backwards. Kings When a player’s piece lands in one of the squares at the far end of the board, its move ends there and it becomes a king. A king is allowed to move or jump in any of the four diagonal directions within the limits of the board.

A king cannot jump over one of the player’s own pieces. Win or Draw A player wins by either capturing all of the other player’s pieces or putting them into a position where they cannot move. A player can also win if the other player resigns or forfeits the game as a result of a violation of the rules. A game is declared a draw when neither player can force a win. Pask, p. 123, says that a draw can be declared any time both players agree to it. Hopper, p. 103, and Reinfeld, p. 181, say that when one side “appears stronger” than the other, the player with the stronger position is required to show a “decided advantage” within 40 of his own moves or else the game is declared a draw. These judgments are to be made by a referee. Pike, p. 113, says that the player with the weaker side may request the 40-move count of the referee. He also says that the requirement is for an “increased” advantage within 40 moves, rather than the “decided” advantage. Pask, p.

123 says that it’s a 50-move rule. He further refines the concept of the “advantage” that must be demonstrated: if neither side has advanced a piece towards the king-row and if no pieces have been removed from the board within 50 moves, the game is a draw. He also adds another set of conditions under which a draw can be declared: “A draw shall be declared if a player can demonstrate that with his next move he would create the same position for the fourth time during the game.” Conduct of Players After it is decided who makes the first move, neither player is allowed to leave the board without the permission from the other player. Pike, p. 144, says that the referee needs to give permission. If a player leaves, that player may be accompanied by the other player, the referee, or a designee. Neither player is allowed to distract the other. Examples include making signs or sounds, pointing, and unnecessary delays when moving a piece that has been touched. Pike, p. 144, says that players are allowed to smoke, but “care must be exercised not to blow smoke across the board.” A player who annoys the other player must be warned.

On the second offense, the player forfeits the game. Conduct of Spectators Spectators are also bound not to distract the players by talking, smoking, hovering over the board, making signs or sounds, etc. A spectator who does so may be removed from the room. Tournaments and Match Games Hopper, p.103, has a rule covering tournaments that does not appear in the other books: “Tourneys played under the straight ‘Knock-out’ style of play shall consist of as many games as are found necessary to eliminate one of the contestants. In the ‘Double Knock-out’ style, both players are penalized a half-life in the event of a continued tie.” Reinfeld, p. 181, says that, “A match between equals, wins and draws to count, should consist of an even number of games.” Unforeseen Disputes Both Reinfeld, p. 182, and Hopper, p. 103, both state that any dispute that these rules don’t cover should be decided by a “disinterested arbiter” who has knowledge of the game and that arbiter’s decision shall be final.

BrainKing - Game rules (Checkers) Game rules Short description of specific rules of Checkers variants Game type Long moves of promoted piece Pawns can jump backwards Pawns can make linear moves and all pieces can jump only orthogonally. (*) It is mandatory to capture as many pieces (as one multi-jump) as possible. (**) It is mandatory to capture the maximum possible amount of promoted pieces. (***) It is mandatory to capture with a promoted piece if possible. Checkers Start position and game object Checkers is played on a standard 64 square chess board. The whole game is performed on dark squares only and each player starts to play with twelve pieces - pawns, located in three rows on the player's side. The object of this game is to capture all opponent's pieces or reach a position where your opponent cannot make a legal move. Movement of pieces Pawns can move only one space diagonally forward, they cannot move backward. The following picture shows an example of white pawn move. If a pawn reaches the opposite side of the board (the last row), it turns to a king who adds backward moves to his abilities.

How to capture opponent's pieces If a pawn stands next to an opponent's piece (forward direction) and the next space beyond this piece is empty, then the player must capture the opponent's piece by jumping over it and removes it from the board. The captured piece will appear under (or over, depending on the board orientation) the board in Captured pieces field to inform the players about the game status. If, after jumping, it is possible to jump over another opponent's piece, the player must capture this piece too. It means that the player can capture several pieces in one move. The same rule applies on a king with the only difference - kings can capture an opponent's piece backward as well. Other important rules The player can jump over opponent's pieces only, not over his/her own ones. Jumping is mandatory. BrainKing.com will not allow you to make a "normal" move if you can capture one or more opponent's pieces in the current position. If the player has more possibilities to capture opponent's pieces, he/she can select any of them. However, when a queen (in variants with long jumps) can make a jump, the player cannot select a pawn to jump with.

The pawn that have jumped over an opponent's piece and turned to a king (reached the opposite side of the board), does not have to continue jumping as a king in this round, even if it would be possible. When a pawn promotes to a king, the move is ALWAYS finished. How To Play Checkers - Standard U.S. Rules How To Play Checkers - Standard U.S. Rules How To Play Checkers - Standard U.S. Rules Jamie Grill/The Image Bank/Getty Images By Erik Arneson Updated October 20, 2016. Checkers, called Draughts in most countries, has been traced back to the 1300s, though it may indeed stretch further into history than that. These are the standard U.S. rules for Checkers. How to Play Checkers is played by two players. Each player begins the game with 12 colored discs. (Typically, one set of pieces is black and the other red.) The board consists of 64 squares, alternating between 32 dark and 32 light squares. It is positioned so that each player has a light square on the right side corner closest to him or her.

Each player places his or her pieces on the 12 dark squares closest to him or her. Black moves first. Players then alternate moves. Moves are allowed only on the dark squares, so pieces always move diagonally. Single pieces are always limited to forward moves (toward the opponent). A piece making a non-capturing move (not involving a jump) may move only one square. A piece making a capturing move (a jump) leaps over one of the opponent's pieces, landing in a straight diagonal line on the other side. Only one piece may be captured in a single jump; however, multiple jumps are allowed during a single turn. continue reading below our video 7 Places to Find Inspiration for Crafting When a piece is captured, it is removed from the board. If a player is able to make a capture, there is no option -- the jump must be made. If more than one capture is available, the player is free to choose whichever he or she prefers. When a piece reaches the furthest row from the player who controls that piece, it is crowned and becomes a king. One of the pieces which had been captured is placed on top of the king so that it is twice as high as a single piece.

Kings are limited to moving diagonally, but may move both forward and backward. (Remember that single pieces, i.e. non-kings, are always limited to forward moves.) Kings may combine jumps in several directions -- forward and backward -- on the same turn. Single pieces may shift direction diagonally during a multiple capture turn, but must always jump forward (toward the opponent). A player wins the game when the opponent cannot make a move. In most cases, this is because all of the opponent's pieces have been captured, but it could also be because all of his pieces are blocked in. Tips Checkers (using the U.S. rules) uses the same board as Chess . Many sets come with the pieces needed to play both games. Many different games can be played using the basic 8x8 Checkers board and pieces. In fact, it's not too hard to come up with your own variants. Here's a collection of free games for an 8x8 board that can be played with game pieces you probably already have. What You Need The Standard Laws of Checkers The Standard Laws of Checkers You may print this and show it to others. But, this article will eventually be part of a book that I am writing.

So, please do not distribute it widely. Checkers is the only game that I know of, in which the official laws do not tell you how to play the game. They assume that you already know quite a bit about the game. The following was a letter (of mine) to the editor of the Keystone Checker Review: Dear Editor, I was amused to see that someone had found a missing rule. There are more missing rules than there are rules. "The Standard Laws of Checkers," as supplied by ACF, do not tell us to use an 8x8 board, or even that the pieces move diagonally. But they do tell us how our pieces must be manufactured (turned, not molded). Here are the rules, with my comments in brackets "[]". This will be part of a book that I'm writing. Feel free to use it in KCR. The Standard Laws of Checkers, with [comments by Jim Loy] [Checkers is a board game played between two players, who alternate moves. The player who cannot move, because he has no pieces, or because all of his pieces are blocked, loses the game. Players can resign or agree to draws.] 1.

The Official Checker Board to be used in National Tournaments and Official Matches shall be of GREEN & BUFF, two inch squares. The board shall be placed for playing so that the GREEN Double Corners are on the right-hand side of the players. [The board is square, with sixty-four smaller squares, arranged in an 8x8 grid. The smaller squares are alternately light and dark colored, in the famous "checker-board" pattern. The game of checkers is played on the dark (black or green) squares. In diagrams in most books, the pieces rest on the white squares, for readability. Buff is a kind of tan color.] [Each player has a dark square on his far left and a light square on his far right. The double-corner, mentioned but not defined in the rules, is the distinctive pair of dark squares in the near right corner.] 2. The Official Checkers to be used in National Tournaments and Official Matches shall be turned and round, and of RED & WHITE in color, and of a diameter of not less than one and one quarter inches, nor more than one and one half inches. The pieces shall be placed on the Green squares.

[The pieces are indeed Red and White, and are called Black and White in most books. In some modern publications, they are called Red and White. Sets bought in stores may be other colors. Black and Red pieces are still called Black (or Red) and White, so that you can read the books. The pieces are of cylindrical shape, much wider than they are tall. Tournament pieces are smooth, and have no designs (crowns or concentric circles) on them.] [The starting position is with each player having twelve pieces, on the twelve dark squares closest to his edge of the board. Once again, notice that in checker diagrams, the pieces are placed on the light colored squares, for readability. On a real board they are on the dark squares.] [You can make only one move per turn. You must move. If you cannot move, you lose. The pieces (not kings) move one square, diagonally, forward. Kings can move diagonally, forward or backward. A piece can only move to a vacant square. You capture an opponent's piece by jumping over it, diagonally, to the adjacent vacant square. A king can jump diagonally, forward or backward.

A piece, which is not a king, can only jump diagonally forward. You can make a multiple jump, with one piece only, by jumping to empty square to empty square. You can only jump one piece, with any given jump. But you can jump several pieces, with a move of several jumps. You remove the jumped pieces from the board. You cannot jump your own piece. You cannot jump the same piece twice, in the same move. As will be mentioned in rule 8, jumps must be completed. If you can jump, you must. And, a multiple jump must be completed. You cannot stop part way through a multiple jump. If you have a choice of jumps, you can choose among them, regardless of whether some of them are multiple, or not.] [Note: In the above paragraph, the term "piece" often includes "king." A piece, whether it is a king or not, can jump a king.] [As will be shown in rule 9, when a piece reaches the last row (the King Row), it becomes a King. A second checker is place on top of that one.

A piece that has just kinged, cannot continue jumping pieces, until the next move.] 3.At the beginning of a contest the players shall toss for colors. The first move is made by the player having the RED (called BLACK in text books) pieces. Thereafter, the players shall alternate in leading of with RED in each succeeding opening balloted. [The rules mention balloted openings. In "Three-Move-Restriction" (the most common form of checkers in tournaments), the first three moves (two for red, and one for white) are chosen at random, from a list of accepted three-move openings. This is done with a special deck of cards. After shuffling, one player chooses a card. On the back is a number, one through six. The card is replaced into the deck, the deck is re-shuffled, and another card is chosen. On the front of this card, is a numbered list of five or six openings. The opening chosen is the one with the chosen number from the first card. You will play both sides (Red and White) of that opening.] [In a match, players often do not alternate colors.

Instead, a player often follows this scheme: Red-White-White-Red-Red-White... or vice versa. This is done so that one player will not always be the first to play Red (or White) for every ballotted opening.] 4. At the end of five minutes (if the move has not previously been made) "Time" must be called in a distinct manner by the person appointed for that purpose; and if the move is not completed at the end of another minute, the game shall be adjudged as lost through improper delay. When either player is deaf or partially deaf, a card on which the word "Time" is printed in large letters shall be placed or laid on the playing table when it is his time to move. [Checker tournaments now use clocks, as in chess. The time control is usually faster than that used in chess games. Consult a chess rule book, or a chess player, concerning how to use a clock. Briefly: The clock has two clocks. Your clock runs when it is your turn to move. When you make your move, you press your button, which stops your clock and starts your opponent's clock. You have a given amount of time, to make a certain number of moves.

If you fail to make enough moves in the given time, you lose by time forfeit (improper delay). There are secondary time controls, after you have made the correct number of moves.] [There is a red flag on the clock. When it falls, at 6:00, and you have not made enough moves, you have exceeded the time control.] [The rules don't mention recording your moves. The use of clocks may make recording of moves necessary, as a record of the number of moves made. The numbered board, on the left, will help you record and read moves. Moves are written as from-to (as 11-15 means from 11 to 15). A multiple jump is recorded as just two numbers, unless that pair of numbers is ambiguous, then the intervening squares are shown (2-11-18, for example). Once again, notice that in checker diagrams, the pieces are placed on the light colored squares, for readability. On a real board they are on the dark squares.] 5.When there are two or more ways to "jump", five minutes shall be allowed for the move.

When there is only one way to "jump", time shall be called at the end of one minute; and if the move is not completed at the end of another minute the game shall be adjudged as lost through improper delay. 6. At the beginning of a game each player shall be entitled to arrange his own or his opponent's pieces properly on the squares. After the game has opened (a move has been made), if either player should touch or arrange any piece, without giving intimation, he shall be cautioned for the first offense, and shall forfeit the game for any subsequent offense of this kind. If the person whose turn it is to play touches one of his own playable pieces, he must either play it or forfeit the game. 7. If any part of a playable piece be played over an angle of the square on which it is stationed, the play must be completed in that direction. Inadvertently removing, touching or disturbing from its position a piece that is not playable, while in the act of "jumping" or making an intended move does not constitute a move, and the piece or pieces shall be placed back in position and the game is continued. 8. The "Huff" or "Blow" is hereby abolished.

All "jumps" must be completed, and all "jumped" pieces must be removed from the board. [The huff was an old rule, which dealt with a player who failed to jump, when he had the opportunity to jump. His opponent had the options of (1) forcing him to take back his non-jump and forcing him to jump, (2) letting the non-jump move stand, or (3) removing, from the board, one of the pieces which could have jumped. This third option, was the "huff." After doing that, the player then made his own move. The rules have gone from this severe penalty, to the current no penalty.] 9. When a single piece reaches the crown-head of the board by reason of a move, or as the completion of a "jump", it becomes a king; and that completes the move, or "jump". The piece then must be crowned by the opponent by placing a piece on top of it. If the opponent neglects to do so and makes a play, then any such play shall be put back until the piece that should have been crowned is crowned. "Time" does not start on the player whose piece should have been crowned until the piece is crowned.

[I've never heard the king-row called "crown-head." I take it, from the last part of this law, that when using a clock, your move is done when you remove your hand from the piece that you just kinged. The crowning of it, is part of your opponent's move.] 10. A King, once crowned, can move in any direction as the limits of the board permit. A King can "jump" in any direction one or more pieces, as the limits of the board permit. When a piece is not available for crowning, one must be furnished by the Referee. [The phrase "any direction" means diagonally forward or backward. The phrase "as the limits of the board permit" merely means that you can't jump off the board. As I said in my comments concerning rule #2, a king can only jump diagonally over one adjacent piece at a time, in any of the four diagonal directions. Of course, multiple jumps are possible.] 11. A Draw is declared when neither player can force a win.

When one side appears stronger than the other and the player with what appears to be the weaker side requests the Referee for a Count on moves, then, if the Referee so decides, the stronger party is required to complete the win or show to the satisfaction of the Referee at least an "increased" (instead of the old wording "decided") advantage over his opponent within forty of his own moves, these to be counted from the point at which notice was given by the Referee; failing in which he must relinquish the game as a draw. [This forty-move draw rule requires some checkers expertise, on the part of the Referee. He must determine if a player has increased his advantage. There is no "triple-repetition" rule. So, a player may repeat the position, twenty times (or a hundred times, if the Referee has not been called in). Normally, the players are reasonable enough to agree to a draw, in such a case. There seems to be a loop-hole, in this rule. Technically, a player who does not have any advantage, can refuse to agree to a draw. The player with the stronger position cannot request a 40-move count, at least not according to this law.

So, we could have a repetitious game, that lasts forever. Reasonable people would agree to the draw, or apply the 40-move draw rule, anyway.] [Personally, I think we need a "triple repetition rule," as in chess.] 12. After an opening is balloted, neither player shall leave the board without permission of the Referee. If permission is granted his opponent may accompany him, or the Referee may designate a person to accompany him. "Time" shall be deducted accordingly from the player whose turn it is to move. [I have no clue how this "time" deduction works, with or without clocks.] 13. Anything that may tend either to annoy or distract the attention of an opponent is strictly forbidden, such as making signs or sounds, pointing or hovering over the board, either with the hands or the head, or unnecessarily delaying to move a piece touched. Any principal so acting, after having been warned of the consequences, and requested to desist, shall forfeit the game. [Rule 13 is a catch-all rule to deal with odd-ball situations. Nearly all games and sports have such a rule.

In baseball a player is "forbidden to make a travesty of the game." But maybe my opponent's good moves are very annoying, and should be out-lawed.] 14. Players shall be allowed to smoke during the conduct of a game but care must be exercised not to blow smoke across the board, lest it annoy an opponent. If a player is thus annoyed, he may object to his opponent's smoking, in which case neither player shall be allowed to smoke. 15. Any spectator giving warning either by signs or sound or remark on any of the games, whether playing or pending, shall be ordered from the room during the contest. Play shall be discontinued until such offending party retires. Spectators shall not be allowed to smoke or talk near the playing boards. Checkers -- from Wolfram MathWorld Checkers Checkers is a two-player game with the most common variant played on an checkerboard with each player starts with twelve pieces of a fixed color on opposite sites of the board. The most common variant of checkers is so-called "pool checkers," also called "Spanish pool checkers," draughts or draught (in the United Kingdom and some other countries), American checkers, and straight checkers.

Play proceeds alternately between players, where all pieces may initially only move and capture in a forward diagonal direction. The allowable direction of play is modified for a piece if it is "crowned" by reaching the other side of the board, after which it may move either forwards or backwards. An opponent's piece may be captured by jumping over it diagonally, and the game is won by capturing all the opponents pieces or leaving the opponent with no legal moves. The most widely available sets of checkers consist of black and red boards and pieces. In tournament play, however, the colors of the pieces are red and white instead of red and black and the colors of the checkerboard squares are usually olive green and buff, where "buff" is a color variously defined as a moderate orange yellow or a light to moderate yellow. (The colors of the squares are, however, are still referred to as "black" and "red.") Schroeppel (1972) estimated that there are about possible positions. However, this disagrees with the estimate of Jonathan Schaeffer of plausible positions, with reachable under the rules of the game. Checkers on an board is known to be exptime complete (Fraenkel et al.

1978; Robson 1984). Computer checkers programs have now become extremely good (Schaeffer 1997), and a program called Chinook has become the first computer program to win a world championship (University of Alberta Department of Computing Science). Schaeffer et al. (2007) solved checkers, proving that if both sides play a perfect game, the result will always be a draw. Schaeffer used multiple computers (an average of 50 of them) to "weakly" solve checkers, storing all the possible positions when there are ten or fewer pieces on the board and then using heuristic search algorithms that could determine the result of a perfect game. However, only positions were needed to be evaluated to "solve" checkers and confirm the commonly held theory that if both players play a perfect game the result will be a draw. Depending on how they are counted, the number of Eulerian cycles on an checkerboard are either 1, 40, 793, 12800, 193721, ...

(OEIS A006240 ) or 1, 13, 108, 793, 5611, 39312, ... (OEIS A006239 ). SEE ALSO: Board , Chess , Chessboard , Connect-Four , Conway's Soldiers , Peg Solitaire REFERENCES: Fraenkel, A. S.; Garey, M. R.; Johnson, D. S.; Schaefer, T.; and Yesha, Y. "The Complexity of Checkers on an Board--Preliminary Report." In Proc. 19th Ann. Symp. Foundations of Computer Science (Ann Arbor, MI, Oct. 1978). Long Beach, CA: IEEE Computer Soc., pp. 55-64, 1978. Schaeffer, J. and Lake, R. "Solving the Game of Checkers." In Games of No Chance, Proc. MSRI Workshop on Combinatorial Games, July, 1994 (Ed. R. J. Nowakowski.) Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 119-133, 1996.

Schroeppel, R. Item 93 in Beeler, M.; Gosper, R. W.; and Schroeppel, R. HAKMEM. Cambridge, MA: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Memo AIM-239, p. 35, Feb. 1972. #item93 . Sloane, N. J. A. Sequences A006239 /M4909 and A006240 /M5271 in "The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences." Sreedhar, S. "Checkers, Solved!" IEEE Spectrum Online. July 19, 2007. . University of Alberta Department of Computing Science. "Chinook: World Man-Machine Checkers Champion." ~chinook/ . Referenced on Wolfram|Alpha: Checkers CITE THIS AS: Checkers | Checkers & Draughts Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Checkers & Draughts Wiki Share Checkers board Checkers (American English and Canadian English), also called American Checkers, Straight Checkers or, English Draughts (British English), is a popular board game all over the world.

Unlike International Checkers , it is played on an eight-by-eight squared board (with sixty-four total squares) with twelve pieces on each side. The pieces move and capture diagonally. They may only move forward until they reach the opposite end of the board, when they are crowned or kinged and may henceforth move and capture both backward and forward. As in all checkers variants, American Checkers is played by two people, on opposite sides of a playing board, alternating moves. Traditionally the pieces are either black, red, or white. The opponent's pieces are captured by jumping over them. Over-the-board tournaments are (or were) held in Australia, Barbados, Canada, Channel Islands, China, Denmark, Germany, Guyana, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, New Zealand, South Africa, Turkmenistan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Contents Edit The starting position Pieces – Though pieces were traditionally made of wood, now many are made of plastic, though other materials may be used. Pieces are typically flat and cylindrical. They are invariably split into one darker and one lighter colour.

Traditionally, these colours are white and red, but black and red are common in the United States, and light- and dark-stained wooden pieces are supplied with more expensive sets. There are two classes 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 twelve pieces on the dark spaces of the three rows closest to that person's own side (as shown in the diagram). The row closest to each player is called the crownhead or kings row. The player with the darker coloured pieces moves first. How to move – There are two ways to move a piece: A simple move involves sliding a piece one space diagonally forwards to an adjacent unoccupied dark square. A jump is a move from a square diagonally adjacent to one of the opponent's pieces to an empty square immediately and directly on the opposite side of the opponent's square, thus jumping directly over the square containing the opponent's piece. An uncrowned piece may only jump diagonally forwards, kings may also jump 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 immediate piece that can be jumped; even if the jump is in a different direction. Jumping is mandatory – whenever a player has the option to jump, that person must jump (even if it's to the jumping player's disadvantage; for example, a player can choose to allow one of his men to get captured to set up capturing two or more of his/her opponent's men). When multiple-option jumping moves are available, whether with the one piece in different directions or multiple pieces that can make various jumping moves, the player may choose which piece to jump with and which jumping option or sequence of jumps to make. The jumping sequence chosen does not necessarily have to be the one that would have resulted in the most captures; however, one must make all available captures in the chosen sequence. Any piece, whether it is a king or not, can jump a king. 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 U.S.), 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. A piece is normally crowned by placing a second piece on top of it; some sets have pieces with a crown molded, engraved or painted on one side, allowing the player to simply turn the piece over or to place the crown-side up on the crowned piece, further differentiating Kings from ordinary pieces. 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. The game ends in a draw, if neither side can force a win. A standard American Checkers Federation set. Smooth red and white pieces, green and buff squares. In Tournament Checkers, a variation called three-move restriction is preferred. The first three moves are drawn at random from a set of accepted openings. Two games are played with the chosen opening, each player having a turn at either side. This tends to reduce the number of draws and can make for more exciting matches. Three-move restriction has been played in the United States championship since 1934.

A two-move restriction was used from 1900 until 1934 in the United States and in the British Isles until the 1950s. Before 1900, championships were played without restriction: this style is called go-as-you-please (GAYP). One rule of long standing that has fallen out of favour is the huffing rule. In this variation jumping is not mandatory, but if a player does not take their jump (either deliberately or by failing to see it), the piece that could have made the jump is blown or huffed, i.e. removed from the board. After huffing the offending piece, the opponent then takes their turn as normal. Huffing has been abolished by both the American Checker Federation and the English Draughts Association. Two common rule variants, not recognized by player associations, are: That capturing with a king precedes capturing with a regular piece. (In such a case, any available capture can be made at the player's choice.) A piece which in the current move has become a king can then in the same move go on to capture other pieces (see under Kings, above).

Notation Main article: Portable Draughts Notation Official Checkers Notation from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th Edition (1875) For recording games, there is a standardised notation. All 32 reachable positions of the board are numbered in sequence. The numbering starts in black's double-corner. The blacks squares on the first rank are numbered 1 to 4, (in algebraic chess notation those being g1, e1, c1, a1. The next rank starts 5 to 8 (h2, f2, d2, b2) and so on. Moves are recorded as from-to, so a move from 9 to 14 would be 9-14. Captures are notated with an x connecting the start and end square. The result is often abbreviated as BW/RW (Black/Red wins) or WW (White wins) A sample game. White resigned after blacks 46th move. [Event "1981 World Championship Match, Game #37"] [Black "M. Tinsley"] [White "A. Long"] [Result "1-0"] 1.

9-14 23-18 2. 14x23 27x18 3. 5-9 26-23 4. 12-16 30-26 5. 16-19 24x15 6. 10x19 23x16 7. 11x20 22-17 8. 7-11 18-15 9. 11x18 28-24 10. 20x27 32x5 11. 8-11 26-23 12. 4-8 25-22 13. 11-15 17-13 14. 8-11 21-17 15. 11-16 23-18 16. 15-19 17-14 17. 19-24 14-10 18. 6x15 18x11 19.

24-28 22-17 20. 28-32 17-14 21. 32-28 31-27 22. 16-19 27-24 23. 19-23 24-20 24. 23-26 29-25 25. 26-30 25-21 26. 30-26 14-9 27. 26-23 20-16 28. 23-18 16-12 29. 18-14 11-8 30. 28-24 8-4 31. 24-19 4-8 32. 19-16 9-6 33. 1x10 5-1 34. 10-15 1-6 35. 2x9 13x6 36. 16-11 8-4 37.

15-18 6-1 38. 18-22 1-6 39. 22-26 6-1 40. 26-30 1-6 41. 30-26 6-1 42. 26-22 1-6 43. 22-18 6-1 44. 14-9 1-5 45. 9-6 21-17 46. 18-22 BW Unicode In Unicode, the checkers are encoded in block Miscellaneous Symbols: U+26C0 WHITE CHECKERS MAN U+26C1 WHITE CHECKERS KING U+26C2 BLACK CHECKERS MEN U+26C3 BLACK CHECKERS KING Computer Players Edit The first English draughts computer program was written by Christopher Strachey, M.A. at the National Physical Laboratory, London. Strachey finished the programme, written in his spare time, in February 1951. It ran for the first time on NPL's Pilot ACE on 30 July 1951.

He soon modified the programme to run on the Manchester Mark 1. The second computer program was written in 1956 by Arthur Samuel, a researcher from IBM. Other than it being one of the most complicated game playing program written at the time, it is also well known for being one of the first adaptive program. It learned by playing games against modified versions of itself, with the victorious versions surviving. Samuel's program was far from mastering the game, although one win against a blind checkers master gave the general public the impression that it was very good. In the 1990s, the strongest program was Chinook , written in 1989 by a team from the University of Alberta led by Jonathan Schaeffer . Marion Tinsley , world champion from 1955–62 and from 1975–91, won a match against the machine in 1992. In 1994, Tinsley had to resign in the middle of an even match for health reasons; he died shortly thereafter. In 1995, Chinook defended its man-machine title against Don Lafferty in a thirty-two game match.

The final score was 1–0 with 31 draws for Chinook over Don Lafferty. In 1996 Chinook won in the USA National Tournament by the widest margin ever, and was retired from play after that event. The man-machine title has not been contested since. In July 2007, in an article published in Science magazine, Chinook's developers announced that the program had been improved to the point where it could not lose a game. If no mistakes were made by either player, the game would always end in a draw. After eighteen years, they have computationally proven a weak solution to the game of Checkers. Using between two hundred desktop computers at the peak of the project and around fifty later on, the team made just 1014 calculations to search from the initial position to a database of positions with at most ten pieces. Computational Complexity Edit The number of legal positions in American Checkers is estimated to be 1020, and it has a game-tree complexity of approximately 1040. By comparison, Chess is estimated to have between 1043 and 1050 legal positions.

When draughts is generalized so that it can be played on an n-by-n board, the problem of determining if the first player has a win in a given position is EXPTIME-complete. The July 2007 announcement by Chinook 's team stating that the game had been solved must be understood in the sense that, with perfect play on both sides, the game will always finish with a draw. Yet, not all positions that could result from imperfect play have been analyzed. List of Top Checkers Programs ItsYourTurn.com - Help Page Help Page Back to the Game Rules main page Checkers: American We've got American checkers, also known as British Draughts (KX), and some variations: Pro Checkers (KP), Anti-Checkers (KA), Sparse Checkers (KS), Crowded Checkers (KC), and Mule Checkers (KM). read : Setup and Object of Checkers read : Starting a Game of Checkers on ItsYourTurn.com read : Moving Checkers on the ItsYourTurn.com Board read : When a Piece Will Not Move read : How do I offer a draw?

read : House rule: 50 moves without a capture (or kinging) is a draw read : House rule: EXACT board position occuring 3 times in the game is a draw read : Pro Checkers (KP) Setup and Object of Checkers Checkers is played on a standard 64 square board. Only the 32 dark colored squares are used in play. Each player begins the game with 12 pieces, or checkers, placed in the three rows closest to him or her. The object of the game is to capture all of your opponent’s checkers or position your pieces so that your opponent has no available moves. Movement Basic movement is to move a checker one space diagonally forward. You can not move a checker backwards until it becomes a King, as described below. If a jump is available, you must take the jump, as described in the next question and answer. If one of your opponent’s checkers is on a forward diagonal next to one of your checkers, and the next space beyond the opponent’s checker is empty, then your checker must jump the opponent’s checker and land in the space beyond. Your opponent’s checker is captured and removed from the board.

After making one jump, your checker might have another jump available from its new position. Your checker must take that jump too. It must continue to jump until there are no more jumps available. Both men and kings are allowed to make multiple jumps. If, at the start of a turn, more than one of your checkers has a jump available, then you may decide which one you will move. But once you have chosen one, it must take all the jumps that it can. When one of your checkers reaches the opposite side of the board, it is crowned and becomes a King. Your turn ends there. A King can move backward as well as forward along the diagonals. It can only move a distance of one space. A King can also jump backward and forward. It must jump when possible, and it must take all jumps that are available to it. In each jump, the King can only jump over one opposing piece at a time, and it must land in the space just beyond the captured piece. The King can not move multiple spaces before or after jumping a piece. Detailed instructions on starting a game can be found in a special short tutorial with cartoons. Here is a brief explanation. Look in the menu column on the left side of the screen.

Near the top under 'Play' you will see 'Start Game.' Click 'Start Game' and you will see a page where you choose what game you want to play. If you choose checkers, a game board will appear. You will be Red, and you will have the option of making your first move at that time. To move, clicking on a piece; then click on a place to move it to; then click 'Submit' beneath the game board. The game will be placed in the Waiting Room where it waits for an opponent. If an opponent picks up the game, the game will reappear on your game status page in the list where it's your turn to move. After a game of checkers is created (see How to Start a Game or How to Join a Game on our help menu ) you may go to it any time by clicking your opponent’s name as it appears on your game status page. If it is your turn, you will see blue outlines around the checkers that your opponent moved in his last turn. To begin your turn, click a checker that you want to move. Remember, if a jump is available, you must take it.

After you click a checker that you want to move, a new page will appear showing that checker with a red outline. Now, click the space to move that checker to. A new page will load showing the checker moved. If you have made a jump and another jump is available with that same checker, you do not need to click the same checker again. Just click the next space that it will jump to. When you are through, several Submit buttons will appear beneath the board. You must click a submit button to finish your move. If you do not see the submit buttons, then you may not have taken all the jumps that are available. Check the board again and make sure you have made all your jumps. The diagram below shows the starting setup. One mule from each side has been circled. Each player starts with 8 regular pieces and 4 Mules. Playing the game: Mules move and capture exactly like regular pieces. See the rules for American Checkers for more details on how the game is played. Mules only affect the winning or losing of the game, otherwise they are treated like any other piece when moving or capturing or being captured. Winning the game: You win the game if you lose all your Mules.

You lose the game if you are forced to promote your Mule. You also lose the game if you lose all your regular pieces. To summarize, you can win the game in one of 3 ways: By capturing all of your OPPONENT's regular pieces By losing all YOUR Mules By forcing your OPPONENT to promote a Mule (that is, move it to the last row) Or, put another way, you lose the game in one of 3 ways: By losing all of YOUR regular pieces By capturing all of your OPPONENT's Mule pieces By promoting YOUR Mule (it ends up on the row furthest away from you) In addition, if it is your turn, and you do not have a legal move (perhaps all your pieces are blocked), then you lose the game. This rule is the same as American Checkers. Also, if you capture ALL of your opponents pieces in a single turn (both regular and mule pieces), then you also win. How many men does each player start a game of checkers with | How many men does each player start a game of checkers with How many men does each player start a game of checkers with? Checkers is a tabletop game for two players.

The players sit on opposite sides of a board that comprises 64 alternating light and dark squares. Each player begins the game with 12 pieces, which si... Read More » Top Q&A For: How many men does each player start a game of c... How many players does each team have on the field in a soccer game? The number of players for each team on a soccer field is typically 11. This can vary, however, based on the age of the players. According to SoccerHelp.com, youth leagues for children under 14 yea... Read More » How many discs does each person have at the beginning in a game of shuffleboard? Everyone starts with four discs, or weights, at the beginning of a shuffleboard game. A coin is tossed to see which player goes first. The first player to get 11 points wins the gameReferences:Mast... Read More » How many discs does each person have at the beginning in a game of shuffle board? Each player or team in shuffleboard receives four discs at the beginning of the game. These two sets of four discs are traditionally yellow and black, and the team with yellow discs shoots first.Re...

Read More » I wanna set up my wii game- how do I hook up the DVD player with the directv on an older tv and play the game through the DVD player? i was suppose to receive an permission slip for landlord i didnt my e-mail is jollyfats7@hotmail.com List of Games Like Chess List of Games Like Chess List started by: board games , chess , checkers , xiangqi , shogi Description: Games similar to chess. A game should only be included in the list if it is a board game with no luck based / random draws component to it (such as dice rolling or card drawing). The list shouldn’t include games which are simply variations of chess, unless they are historically significant or commonly played variants. 1 Chess Chess is a two-player game played on a board consisting of 8 by 8 squares. Each player starts the game with 8 pawns, 2 bishops, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 1 king and 1 queen. You can capture your opponent’s pieces by moving one of your pieces to its position. The objective of the game is to capture your opponent’s king. Each piece has its own movement rules.

If you move a pawn to the other side of the board, you can replace it with a superior piece. 2 Checkers Checkers is played on a board consisting of 8 by 8 squares. Each player has 12 disc shaped (ordinary) pieces. The objective is to remove all of your opponent’s pieces from the board. Ordinary pieces can only be moved diagonally forwards and king pieces can be moved diagonally forwards or backwards. A king piece is created by moving an ordinary piece to the other side of the board. Each piece can move one space in a turn, unless it is jumping over an opponent’s piece. Multiple jumps can be made in a single turn. A player’s pieces are removed from the board if they are jumped over by their opponent’s pieces. Multiple jumps can be made Checkers is also known as draughts. 3 Xiangqi Xiangqi originated in China. The board has a grid pattern (with horizontal, vertical and a few diagonal lines) which has a dividing space known as the ‘river’. The movement of some pieces are affected by the river. Each player’s pieces start the game on the board’s intersections and move along the lines.

The pieces are typically discs with Chinese characters (coloured red for one player, and black for the other) on them. The objective is to capture your opponent’s general. The pieces include: generals, advisors, elephants, horses, chariots, cannons, and soldiers. Xiangqi is also known as Chinese chess. 4 Shogi The modern version of Shogi was developed in the 16th century (but had evolved from older board games). The game board comprises of a nine-by-nine grid of rectangles. The pieces are wedge shaped and have kanji characters (Chinese characters used in Japanese) denoting what piece they represent. The top side of each piece is written in black, and (except for kings and gold generals) the bottom is written in red (to denote a promoted version of the character). The only thing which visually differentiates your pieces from your opponents is the direction they are pointing. Each player starts with 1 king, 1 rook, 1 bishop, 2 gold generals, 2 silver generals, 2 knights, 2 lances and 9 pawns.

A player’s pieces start in the first three rows closest to them, with the third row taken up entirely by pawns, the second row having the bishop and rook (but mostly empty spaces), and the first row taken up entirely by the other pieces. Like chess, the objective is to capture your opponent’s king. Unlike chess, most pieces can be promoted (if they reach one of the furthest three rows away) and captured enemy pieces can be redeployed but on your side (instead of using your turn to move a piece). Shogi is also known as Japanese chess. 5 Go Go originated in ancient China. One player places white pieces, and the other player places black pieces. The pieces are placed on the intersections on a grid (with horizontal and vertical lines). If a cluster of a player’s pieces has no ‘liberties’ (empty points) around it (due to being either surrounded or cornered by the opponent’s pieces), then that cluster of pieces is removed from the board. The objective is to gain the most territory. Go is also known as igo, baduk, paduk, and weiqi. 6 Chaturanga Chaturanga was developed in India around the 6th century AD.

Chaturanga is believed to have lead to the development of chess, shogi, makruk, xiangqi and janggi. The exact rules of chaturanga are unknown. 7 Bagh-Chal Bagh-Chal is a Nepalese board game. It differs from most ‘chess like’ games, in that the two players are asymmetric. One player controls tigers, and the other player controls goats. The board has horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines, with pieces being placed at the intersections and moved along the lines. The tigers start at the four corners of the board, and the goats are gradually added to the board. The tiger player wins if they capture five goats. The goats player wins if they eventually make it impossible for the tigers to capture five goats. 8 Tamerlane Chess Tamerlane chess originated in Persia during the reign of Timur (1336–1405). The board consists of 11 by 10 (uncheckered) squares, with two additional squares which protrude from the side. Only Kings can occupy the protruding squares. Tamerlane chess has a wide variety of pieces including different types of pawns.

Most types of pawn correspond to a higher piece, which it gets promoted to when it reaches the end of the board. The two exceptions are the pawn of kings, which gets promoted to a prince (essentially a spare king), and the pawn of pawns which doesn’t get promoted. Each player starts with the following pieces: 11 pawns (of varying types), 2 elephants, 2 camels, 2 war machines, 2 rooks, 2, knights, 2 pickets, 2 giraffes, 1 general, 1 vizir and 1 king. The objective is to eliminate your opponent’s king(s). 9 Makruk Makruk is very similar to chess, and in Thailand is more commonly played than chess. The main differences between Makruk and chess are: the starting positions (there is an empty row between the pawns and the other pieces), how the pieces move (queens can only move one space and bishops can only move on space forward or diagonally), and the counting rules (the game must be completed within a certain number of turns if all pawns or all non-king pieces are eliminated). Makruk is also known as Thai chess.

10 Janggi Janggi was derived from and is similar to xiangqi (including the starting position of the pieces). Unlike xiangqi, there is no ‘river’ dividing the two sides of the board. Janggi is also known as Korean chess. 11 Courier Chess Courier chess is a centuries old game very similar to chess. It is played on a board 50% wider than a chess board i.e. a board consisting of 12 by 8 squares. Each player starts the game with the following pieces: 12 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bischofs (also known as bishops, wise men or archers), 2 couriers (also known as läufers or runners), 1 rath (also known as a mann, counsellor or henchman), 1 schleich (also known as a sneak, smuggler, trülle or trull), 1 queen, and 1 king. Bischofs leap to two spaces diagonally. Couriers move like bishops in chess. Raths can move one space in any direction. Schleichs can move one space horizontally or vertically. Queens can move one space diagonally.

Courier chess is also known as kurierspiel, courier-spiel or the courier game. 12 Chaturaji Chaturaji is a game for four players, which originated in India. Each player has the following eight pieces: 4 pawns, 1 king, 1 elephant, 1 horse and 1 boat. The pawns and king move in a similar way to how they move in chess. The elephant moves like a chess rook. The horse moves like a chess knight. The boat moves like a chess bishop but with its movement restricted to two squares. 13 Hiashatar Hiashatar is a medieval chess variant from Mongolia, played on a 10 by 10 square board. The pieces are the same as in chess except each player has two extra pawns and two ‘bodyguard’ (or ‘hia’) pieces. Bodyguard pieces can move up to two squares in any direction. Bodyguard pieces have an unusual special ability which restricts the movement of the nearby pieces (except knights). A moving piece must stop if it moves through one square away from the bodyguard. A piece positioned one square away from a bodyguard cannot move more than one square away in a single move.

The other differences to chess are that pawns only promote to queens, and that there is no castling. 14 Oshi Oshi means ‘push’. It has a board which has nine-by-nine squares, and eight pieces per player. A player would have four one-storied pieces, two two-storied pieces and two three-storied pieces. The pieces can move horizontally and vertically, and can push other pieces as it moves. The objective is to push eight points worth of your opponent’s pieces off the board. The number of stories a piece has determines how many spaces it can move per turn, the maximum amount it can push, and the value to the opponent if it is pushed off the board. 15 Octi Octi is a game similar to checkers. Each player starts with 7 pods of their colour (octagon shaped pieces) and 25 prongs (which can be inserted on your pods). Each player starts the game with three of their pods at that player’s base squares. Pods can move in the direction of the prongs which are attached to them. The players take turns, and in a typical turn, a player can either move their pod or insert a prong.

An opponent’s pod is captured if it is jumped. You may jump your own pods, and can stack pods (so they can move together). The objective is to capture your opponent’s base squares. 16 Dou Shou Qi Dou Shou Qi is played on a board of 7 by 9 squares. Each player starts the game with one of each of the following pieces (in descending order of power): elephant, lion, tiger, leopard, wolf, dog, cat, and rat. A piece can only defeated by a piece of equal or higher power, with the exception of the elephant which can be defeated by a rat (but not vice versa). Each piece has its own rules for movement. Dou Shou Qi is also known as jungle, game of fighting animals, the jungle game, jungle chess, animals chess, oriental chess and children’s chess. 17 Halma Halma (from the Greek word meaning ‘jump’) was developed in 1883 or 1884 by the American thoracic surgeon, George Howard Monks. The game is for 2 or 4. The objective is to be the first player to move their pieces to the other corner of the board (where an opponent’s pieces started the game).

Each turn a player may move one of their pieces, one space unless hopping over other pieces (similar to checkers but without removing the pieces off the board, and your pieces can jump over your own pieces). 18 Stern-Halma Stern-halma was developed in Germany in 1892, as a variation of the older American game halma. It is played on a star shaped board (similar to the Star of David), with holes or indentations where the pieces are placed. The game is for 2-6 players (but not 5 players due to the asymmetry it would create). The objective is to be the first player to move their pieces to the other side of the board. Each turn a player may move one of their pieces, one space unless hopping over other pieces (similar to checkers but without removing the pieces off the board, and your pieces can jump over your own pieces). Stern-halma is also known as star halma and is commonly known as Chinese checkers (despite not being of Chinese origin). 19 Cathedral Cathedral was developed between 1962 and 1979 by New Zealander, Robert Moore.

Each player has a set of pieces (shaped like buildings) of different sizes. One player has dark pieces, and the other has light pieces. There is also a cathedral piece which is of a shade in between and is the first piece to be placed. The players take turns placing their pieces. Encircling an opponent’s piece removes it from the board (but can be replaced). A player wins if they place all of their pieces on the board. If neither player can do this, then the player with the least amount of unplaced building area is the winner. 20 Abalone Abalone was developed in 1987 by Laurent Lévi and Michel Lalet. It has a hexagonal shaped board, with circular spaces to place the sphere shaped pieces. One player has black spheres, and the other has white spheres. The players take turns shifting up to three of their adjacent spheres one space at a time, either broadside or in-line. The objective is to push at least six of your opponent’s spheres off the board. Spheres can only be pushed if the pushing line has more spheres than the pushed line.

21 Quoridor Quoridor was designed by Mirko Marchesi and published by Gigamic Games in 1997. The board comprises of 9-by-9 squares, with grooves separating the squares. Each player starts with a pawn on the board. In a player’s turn, they may move their pawn one square (horizontally or vertically) or place one wall piece (across the length of two squares). The wall pieces may be placed to hinder your opponent, but not to block them off completely. The objective is to be the first player to move their pawn across to the other side of the board. 22 Djambi Djambi is a game for four players, and was developed by Jean Anesto in 1975. Each player has the following nine pieces: 4 militants, 1 necromobile, 1 troublemaker, 1 reporter, 1 assassin, and 1 chief. The objective is to kill your opponents’ chiefs. When a piece is killed, it is turned upside down rather than removed from the board. A chief is in power if they occupy the central square. 23

Question: At the start of a game of checkers, each player starts with how many pieces?
Answer: 12