Checkers Basics for Beginners

checker championship at the WonderCon in 1978.
Checker championship was won by Shaggy at the WonderCon in 1978.

BASIC RULES OF TOURNAMENT CHECKERS:

  1. Players flip a coin to see who goes first. Black always leads the moves and is considered a handicap position.
  2. Place all 24 checkers on the black squares of the board, avoiding the two horizontal strips of black squares on “No-Man’s-Land” in the center of the board.
  3. Pieces can make diagonal moves only, one square at a time except during jumps.
  4. Each player moves one piece in turn.
  5. Initial moves are only forward unless the piece has been crowned king by reaching the opponent’s back line.
  6. If a piece can be taken, it must be taken. Forced moves cause forced captures.
  7. Pieces are taken by jumping over them, from empty square to empty square. Pieces cannot land on top of other pieces.
  8. You can only jump a piece if your piece is directly next to the opponent’s piece.
  9. You must land on an empty square when jumping.
  10. Multiple jumps may be made if conditions are right.
  11. “King Me” is spoken aloud when reaching opponent’s back line, after which that piece can move either forward or backward on the board, but always diagonally.
  12. The game is over when all the pieces of one player are gone. A play can end in a draw.

Those are the very basic rules of checkers. Watching a few games on youtube will give you the confidence you need to try playing a game with a friend. Continue reading

So You Think Checkers is for Chumps???

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Most people have the impression that checkers is a simple game, while chess is a horrifically complicated game. Actually, both games have extraordinary levels of deepness if you are inclined to pursue the craft at all. I’m posting a few examples of just how incredibly complex the game can be, and how extraordinarily sophisticated the analytical and theoretical levels really are, in the “simple” game of checkers — you know, the cracker or whiskey barrel variety of slow countrified game between two players too lazy to see if it’s rainin’, so they send the dog out and see if it comes back in wet. Continue reading