How to Play Checkers: A First-Game Walkthrough for Beginners
Here’s how to play checkers, in one breath: each player puts 12 pieces on the dark squares of the three rows nearest them, Black moves first, pieces slide one square diagonally forward, you capture by jumping over enemy pieces (and you must jump when you can), and a piece that reaches the far row becomes a king. Capture everything your opponent has, or block them so they can’t move, and you win.
That’s the whole game. The rest of this page walks you through your first one, move by move, sitting across from a friend. No board in the house? Play 2 player checkers free right in your browser and follow along there instead.
What you need
- A checkerboard: 8×8, 64 squares, alternating light and dark. A chess board works fine.
- 24 flat pieces: 12 in one color, 12 in another. Traditionally red and white or black and white.
- A second player. Preferably one who also doesn’t know what they’re doing yet.
Ten minutes, give or take. First games run short because somebody blunders half their pieces into a chain jump. That somebody might be you, and that’s fine.
Step 1: Set up the board
Turn the board so each of you sees a dark square in your bottom-left corner. Checkers lives entirely on the dark squares; the light ones might as well not exist.
| Setup | Detail |
|---|---|
| Board | 8×8, dark square at each player’s bottom-left |
| Your pieces | 12, on the dark squares of the three rows closest to you |
| Empty space | The two middle rows start with nothing on them |
| Total on board | 24 pieces, all on dark squares |
If both players have filled three rows and the middle of the board is empty, you did it right.
Step 2: Black goes first
The darker color always opens. Decide who plays Black however you like; coin flip, or loser of the last game gets it. From there you alternate turns, one move each, and nobody ever passes. If it’s your turn, you move. Even when every option is bad.
Step 3: Make a move
A regular piece (called a “man”) moves one square diagonally forward, onto an empty dark square. Forward means toward your opponent. No sideways moves, no backing up, and no two-square strolls because you felt like it.
That’s the entire movement rule for the opening. Both of you will shuffle pieces forward for a few turns, the two armies will meet near the middle, and then the game actually starts.
Step 4: Your first jump
The moment an enemy piece sits diagonally in front of one of yours with an empty square directly beyond it, you can capture: hop over, land on the empty square, take their piece off the board.
Two things about jumping surprise every new player:
- Jumping is mandatory. If any of your pieces has a jump available, you have to take one. You can’t decline it to make a safer move. Your friend will try to decline it. Don’t let them.
- Jumps chain. If your piece lands and another jump is sitting right there, you keep going, in the same turn, until no more jumps exist. Double and triple jumps are how beginner games end fast.
When two different jumps are available at once, you pick which one to take. The game never forces you into the bigger capture; that rule belongs to other checkers variants, not this one.
One more limit: a man only jumps forward. Backward jumps come later, with kings.
The forced jump feels like a punishment at first. It’s actually the tactical heart of the game: feed a piece on purpose and you’ve just picked your opponent’s move for them. Our guide to checkers jumping rules covers the fine print once you’ve played a game or two.
Step 5: Crown your first king
March a man all the way to the far row (your opponent’s back row) and it gets crowned. Stack a captured piece on top so everyone can see what it is.
A king moves and captures one square diagonally in any direction, backward included. It doesn’t fly across the board like a chess bishop; one square at a time, same as always, just no longer limited to forward.
Small detail that decides real games: if your man jumps onto the back row, the turn ends there. It gets crowned, but it can’t keep capturing in the same move. New king, new turn.
Kings win endgames. If you’re up a king and your friend has none, you can chase their men down from behind while they can only run forward. There’s a full page on kings in checkers when you want the details.
Step 6: Finish the game
You win in either of two ways:
- Capture every enemy piece. The classic ending.
- Block your opponent so it’s their turn and they have no legal move. Beginners miss this one constantly. Trapping the last two men against the edge wins just as hard as jumping them.
Draws exist too. If the same position shows up three times, or 40 straight moves pass for each player with no capture and no man moved, the game is called. In a first game between two beginners you will almost never see this; someone always blunders first.
Five mistakes everyone makes in their first game
- Moving the back row early. Your back row is what stops enemy men from crowning. Keep those four pieces home as long as you can.
- Sending one piece ahead alone. A lone advanced checker is a free jump waiting to happen. Advance in pairs and clumps that defend each other.
- Forgetting forced jumps cut both ways. Before you move, check what jumps your move creates for the other side. That “free” square you just stepped to might be the first hop of their triple.
- Hoarding instead of trading when ahead. Up three pieces? Trade one-for-one at every chance. Eight versus five is a bigger edge than eleven versus eight.
- Racing for a king while your side collapses. A king is strong, not magic. If crowning one piece costs you three others, you lost the trade.
Where to go from here
Play two or three games back to back. The rules stick after about one game, and everything past that is pattern-spotting. When your friend goes home, the computer on our homepage plays at three levels and never gets tired of losing to you. Easy mode is genuinely easy on purpose.
For settling arguments, the full checkers rules page has every rule on one screen, including the draw law nobody memorizes. And once you’re tired of winning by accident, how to win checkers covers the tactics for beating the actual human sitting across from you.
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