Play Checkers Online Free — TapTogon

What is Checkers?

Checkers — known as Draughts in much of the world — is a classic two-player strategy game played on an 8×8 board. Each player starts with twelve pieces on the dark squares and moves them diagonally, trying to capture every one of the opponent's pieces.

It is one of the oldest and most widely played board games on Earth, easy to pick up in a minute yet deep enough to reward years of practice. Captures are made by jumping over an opponent's piece into an empty square beyond it.

With TapTogon Checkers you can play instantly in your browser — free, with no download and no sign-up. Take on the computer at eight strength levels, from a gentle beginner up to a tough master, or pass the phone and play a friend.

How to Play

Each side has twelve pieces on the dark squares. The player with the darker (navy) pieces moves first. Pieces move one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square.

Jump over an opponent's piece
into the empty square beyond to capture it.

1. Move diagonally. Ordinary pieces (men) move one step diagonally forward onto an empty dark square.
2. Capture by jumping. If an opponent's piece sits diagonally next to yours with an empty square right behind it, you jump over it and remove it from the board.
3. Capturing is mandatory. If a jump is available, you must take it. When one jump leads to another with the same piece, you continue jumping in the same turn — a multi-jump.
4. Crown your kings. A man that reaches the opponent's back row becomes a king, marked with a crown. Kings move and capture both forward and backward.
5. Win by capture or block. You win when your opponent has no pieces left, or no legal move on their turn.

Tips & Strategy

Checkers is a game of tempo and traps. A few habits will lift your play quickly:

1. Control the center. Central pieces reach more squares and give you more attacking options than pieces stuck on the edges.
2. Guard your back row. Keeping your back rank intact for as long as possible denies your opponent the squares they need to crown a king.
3. Trade when ahead. If you have more pieces, exchanging them simplifies the game and makes your advantage decisive.
4. Set up forced captures. Because capturing is mandatory, you can offer a piece to force your opponent into a jump that opens a bigger capture for you.
5. Race for a king. A king is far stronger than a man. Pushing a piece toward the last row, safely, often wins the game.
6. Keep pieces connected. Supported pieces are hard to attack; a lone advanced piece is easy to trap.

Draws & Drawn Endgames

Not every game of Checkers ends in a win. When neither side can force a victory, the game is a draw. TapTogon Checkers recognises the situations below automatically, and offers you a draw when a theoretically drawn king ending appears — you can accept it or play on.

Theoretically drawn king endings

In these pure-king endings the stronger side simply cannot win against correct defence, no matter how long the game continues:

1. King vs King. A single king against a single king can never be trapped — the lone kings just keep dancing along the diagonals.
2. Two kings vs one king. With correct defence the lone king holds the double-corner and cannot be pinned down, so two kings are not enough to win.
3. Two kings vs two kings. Balanced king material on an open board offers no winning breakthrough for either side.
4. Three kings vs two kings. In the vast majority of positions the extra king is not enough to force a win, and the game is drawn.
5. Three kings vs three kings. Equal king material again leaves neither side with a forced win.

Draw by rule

Some positions could in theory be won, but if the stronger side cannot make progress the game is declared a draw:

1. No-progress move limit. If a stretch of moves passes with no capture and no ordinary man advancing, the game is drawn. The allowance scales with how few pieces remain — the fewer the pieces, the sooner a fruitless position is called a draw.
2. Threefold repetition. If the exact same position, with the same player to move, occurs three times, the game is a draw.
3. Many kings vs a lone king. A side with three or more kings against a single enemy king must capture it promptly; if it fails to do so within the allotted moves, the game is drawn.

Note: TapTogon Checkers follows English draughts rules — a player who cannot make any legal move on their turn loses (it is not a stalemate draw).

Frequently Asked Questions

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