Draughts, or checkers, is a simple and entertaining game that has been played since the 12th century. A checkers game aims to stop your opponent from moving by capturing or blocking their pieces. Jumping your opponent’s pieces and taking them off the board will let you move more quickly. While checkers’ basic idea is straightforward, there are ways to increase your odds of success. So, if you don’t know about the game of checkers or how to play checkers, then this article is a must-read for you! We’ll go through checkers’ basics with you and will guide you on how to play checkers!
Game Setup
In this article on how to play checkers, firstly, we’ll talk about game setup.
- Decide Who will Go First in the Turn Order.
You must decide who goes first before setting up the board. This can be decided by a coin toss, the outcome of the most recent game, or any other means. The first player will take the black checkers, while the second player will take the white ones.
- The player who has the black checkers always goes first in the game of checkers, so keep that in mind.
- Set Up the Board.
Put the board in between you and your opponent as you sit across from each other. The board should be positioned so that each player has a light-colored square in the corner of the board on their right side. In eight rows of eight, 64 squares on the board alternate between dark and light. Both the light and dark squares total 64.
- Put The Checkers on the Game Board.
Have them arrange their pieces on the 12 dark squares in the first three rows closest to each player. These three rows should each include a total of four checkers. Keep in mind that on the dark squares, checkers are only allowed to move diagonally.
- The board has eight rows. Thus the players’ checkers will fill up six of them while two rows are left open in the middle.
- Choose Whether You will Time Each Other’s Movements.
Each participant has five minutes to move during a game of checkers in a competition. Before you start a game of checkers, set a timer near the checker’s board if you wish to time each other’s moves to keep the game moving.
Checkers Rules and Gameplay
- If You have the Black Checkers, Begin the Game.
You’ll take turns moving when the player with the black checkers has made their initial move, followed by the person with the white checkers. During a standard turn, just one checker may move diagonally forward. Checkers must stay within the shadowed areas.
- Jump the Checkers of Your Rival to Get Them off the Board.
You can jump and take your opponent’s checker if your checker is on the diagonal spot closest to your opponent’s. Move two diagonal spaces in the direction of the checker you’re assaulting, as if you’re hopping over your foe’s piece, to capture a checker.
- When Your Checkers Reach the End of Your Adversary’s Side, King Your Pieces.
Put one of your captured pieces on top of a checker to crown it as a king checker. The dark squares allow the king to move forward and backward diagonally, making it simpler for your king checkers to capture your rival’s checkers.
- Keep Jumping and Capturing to Win the Game.
To eliminate all of your opposition’s checkers from the board, keep jumping and grabbing them. When all of your adversary’s checkers have been caught, you have won the game!
Strategies and Tactics
If we are talking about how to play checkers, then you must be waiting for some pro strategies and tactics to increase your chances of winning the game.
- Play Offensively Rather Than Defensively.
Beginners might be inclined to keep their pieces near the board’s edges and avoid their adversary’s checkers as much as possible, but this is a bad idea. Instead of specializing in guarding your checkers, focus on capturing your rival’s checkers. If you manage to take more of your adversary’s pieces than they do, it doesn’t matter if some of your pieces are taken.
- Always take the initiative to try to capture your opponent’s checkers.
- Keep a Full Back Row for as Long as You Can.
Maintaining a full back row is the most effective technique to stop your adversary from crowning his pieces. Your opponent will have a piece crowned and harder to grab if they move it to your back row. Additionally, it will make it simpler for you to stop any enemy pieces from getting close to your back row.
- Focus on the Kings.
You should concentrate on crowning as many pieces as possible while preventing your opponent from crowning any of his. As you progress in the game, this should be your priority. Crowning your pieces, however, should avoid the loss of numerous checkers along the way. Be informed about when to crown your piece.
- Block your Opponent.
If you can, try to block his active pieces so that he must use pieces from the back row to play. The game is over if all of your adversary’s pieces are immovable and blocked. Working on seizing more of your opponent’s pieces or winning your own can also be productive.
- Watch an Expert.
Watch a professional checkers player live or on television. You can learn a lot by simply seeing how a pro moves their pieces around the board. Pay attention to what the specialist performs in specific circumstances.
- Consider reading up on checkers tactics online or in a book. If you read about the techniques of some checkers experts, you can improve your play.
On a Wrap
So, here, we taught you how to play checkers, game setup, rules, strategies, and tactics. These above-mentioned instructions will surely help you understand or, say, win the game of checkers!
Also read: Royal Chess Mall – Online Chess Store Review
