How to play Checkers

Checkers — known as draughts outside North America — is one of the oldest and most approachable board games there is. You play the pieces at the bottom of the board against the computer, moving your men diagonally up the board, jumping the opponent's pieces, and racing to crown kings. It takes a minute to learn and rewards a bit of planning: a single well-set trap can win you two or three pieces at once.

The goal

Capture all of your opponent's pieces, or leave them with no legal move. Each side starts with twelve pieces on the dark squares of the three rows nearest them. The game is played entirely on the dark squares.

How to play

• Tap one of your pieces to select it; the squares it can move to are marked. Tap a marked square to move there.
• Ordinary pieces (men) move one square diagonally forward to an empty dark square.
• You capture by jumping diagonally over an opponent's piece into the empty square just beyond it. The jumped piece is removed.
• Captures are compulsory. If any of your pieces can jump, you must make a jump that turn — a quiet move is not allowed while a capture is on offer.
• If, after landing a jump, the same piece can jump again, it must keep jumping. One turn can sweep several pieces off the board.
• Reach the far row and your man is crowned a king, which may move and jump both forward and backward.

Choose your difficulty

Three levels set how far the computer looks ahead. Easy searches a couple of moves deep and will occasionally slip, making it a gentle game to learn on. Medium searches five moves ahead and punishes loose play. Hard searches eight moves ahead with alpha-beta pruning and gives a genuinely tough opponent that sets multi-jump traps of its own.

Strategy and tips

Because captures are forced, the heart of checkers is offering a piece your opponent must take — and being ready to take back more than you gave. Control the centre, keep your pieces connected so none can be jumped for free, and hold your back row as long as you can: it stops the enemy from crowning kings. Kings are powerful because they move both ways, so trading evenly while you are ahead in kings is usually good. Above all, look one move past every jump: the forced-capture rule cuts both ways, and a tempting jump can walk your piece straight into a double capture.