How to play Checkers

American / English draughts as used in Royal Checkers.

Checkers is played on the dark squares of an 8×8 board. Each side starts with 12 pieces. Capture all of the opponent’s pieces — or leave them with no legal moves — to win.

Basic movement

• Men move one square diagonally forward.
• Pieces stay on dark squares only.
• You cannot move onto an occupied square (except by jumping over an enemy).

Capturing

• Jump an adjacent enemy piece onto the empty square immediately beyond.
• Captures are mandatory — if you can jump, you must jump.
• Multi-jumps are allowed in a single turn when the same piece can keep jumping.

Kings

• When a man reaches the far row, it becomes a King (gold crown).
• Kings move and capture diagonally forward and backward.

Playing on Royal Checkers

1. Open Royal Checkers.
2. Choose 2 Players or vs AI (you play Red).
3. Select a piece that can move (or must capture), then a highlighted square.
4. Use Undo or New Game as needed.

Play Checkers now Chess guide