Checkers

Checkers
Starting position for American checkers on an 8×8 checkerboard; Black (red) moves first.
Years activeat least 5,000
Genres
Players2
Setup time<1 minute
Playing timeCasual games usually last 10 to 30 minutes; tournament games last anywhere from about 60 minutes to 3 hours or more.
ChanceNone
Age range6+
SkillsStrategy, tactics
Synonyms
  • draughts (or drafts)
  • chequers

Checkers[note 1] (American English), also known as draughts (/drɑːfts, dræfts/; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers is developed from alquerque.[1] The term "checkers" derives from the checkered board which the game is played on, whereas "draughts" derives from the verb "to draw" or "to move".[2]

The most popular forms of checkers in Anglophone countries are American checkers (also called English draughts), which is played on an 8×8 checkerboard; Russian draughts and Turkish draughts, both on an 8x8 board; and International draughts, played on a 10×10 board – with the latter widely played in many countries worldwide. There are many other variants played on 8×8 boards. Canadian checkers and Malaysian/Singaporean checkers (also locally known as dam) are played on a 12×12 board.

American checkers was weakly solved in 2007 by a team of Canadian computer scientists led by Jonathan Schaeffer. From the standard starting position, perfect play by each side would result in a draw.


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  1. ^ Masters, James. "Draughts, Checkers - Online Guide". www.tradgames.org.uk.
  2. ^ Strutt, Joseph (1801). The sports and pastimes of the people of England. London. p. 255.