Checkers (or Draughts) is a two player board game played on an 8x8 board (just like a chess board, except it has red squares in place of white).

Rules
The board is set up as shown. Each player puts his or her 12 checkers in the three closest rows, occupying only the black squares.

The board should be oriented such that the bottom left square for both players is black. A player cannot move a checker onto a red square, only black.

The object is to capture all of your opponent’s checkers, or block him so that he cannot make a move.

Black moves first, moving a checker one space diagonally (forward) in either direction. Checkers can only be moved forward, and only on to an open square. Players move alternately.

Crowning: When a checker reaches the last row of the board, it is ‘crowned’ or ‘kinged’. A king moves just like an un-kinged checker, except that it can move backwards as well. A king is usually indicated by stacking a same-colour checker on top of the other.

Jumping: If an opponent checker is in the (black) square diagonally next to yours, and the square behind that is open, you must jump over your opponent’s checker and occupy the open square. If one jump leads to another jump opportunity, keep jumping (in the same turn) until all possible jumps have been taken. If you reach the end of the board while jumping, you are crowned and your turn gets over. The checkers jumped over are removed from the board (or ‘captured’).  A king can be jumped the same way as a normal checker. You cannot jump over your own checkers.

Strategies
Here are some tips and tricks to help you get better at checkers.

Force capture – try and force the opponent to jump one checker of yours in a position such that you get two or more of his. Also try not to fall for such a situation yourself.

• Try and keep your opponent from getting a king by blocking the last row.
• Try and move between your own pieces (if you have enough), or along corners/edges so that the opponent finds it difficult to jump you.
• Move to the middle of the board as soon as possible. This way you will have more moves as compared to edge positions.