How to Win at Checkers

Improving Your Chances of Winning

Focus on crowning more pieces than your opponent. In checkers, the person who has more kings also has the advantage. Try to crown as many pieces as possible to increase your chances of winning the game. To put this advice into practice, advance a piece toward an area on your board where your opponent has fewer pieces, or pieces that are more spread out. If you can protect this piece with nearby pieces and sacrifices, then you have a good chance at making a king. See Intermediate Strategies below for how to "redirect the enemy" and sneak through a king.

Keep your back row in place until you need to move those checkers. It's impossible for your opponent to crown his or her pieces if your back row is occupied, so this strategy will prevent your opponent from getting the advantage too soon in the game. You will also have more movement options left when you do start moving your back row pieces. Remember that you won't be able to keep your back row intact forever. Once you're low on pieces or you see an opportunity for an advantageous trade, don't hesitate to move out.

Advance pieces in close groups and in tandem. Two pieces "in tandem" are adjacent to each other on a diagonal line. Keeping pieces near enough to form tandem in one move makes it much harder for your opponent to capture them. "Following" a piece you moved earlier before you move it again will leave your front piece less open to capture. Following it with two pieces is even safer, since you can block capture from two directions. See Intermediate Strategies to learn how to form "trapping pairs".

Trade checkers when you're ahead. It's obvious that trading one of your checkers for two of your opponent's checkers benefits you, but even trading one for one is useful if you had more checkers to begin with. For example, if you have 5 checkers and your opponent has 4 checkers, then the board is almost equal. But once you trade three pieces each, you have a huge advantage with twice as many pieces as your opponent.

Control the center of the board. If you keep a few pieces near the center, you will keep your options open and be able to move rapidly to whichever side of the board needs your attention. Likewise, preventing your opponent from placing pieces in the center will deny him or her this advantage. It takes practice to judge how many pieces you need to commit to the center in a particular game. As a general rule, you should try to build up enough of a position that the opponent is unable to safely advance anywhere except the left and right edges. After that goal is achieved, adding more of your pieces can actually clog up your board and lower your options.

Using Strategies to Capture Checkers

Sacrifice pieces to gain advantages. The "forced capture" rule requires a player to make a capture if they are able to. Think ahead to what the board will look like if you force your opponent to capture your piece and you might discover it's worth the sacrifice. If you're trying to crown a piece but your opponent is pursuing it, you can sacrifice a less important piece to lure the pursuer away from your soon-to-be king. If you have a diagonal line of pieces, moving the forward one toward the enemy can force a capture that places the enemy piece next to another of yours. Make sure you don't open yourself up to a double capture!

Try a "Trapping Pairs" strategy. To use the "Trapping Pairs" strategy, you need to wait for a certain setup on the board. Your first checker (piece 1) should be in the leftmost or rightmost column, against the edge of the board. Your second checker (piece 2) should be one row in front of your first checker on the diagonal. Following that same diagonal, there should be an empty space, then one of your opponent's checkers(piece A), then another opponent checker (piece B) one row behind. Move piece 2 toward your opponent's pieces, so that it is in danger of being captured. The forced capture rule requires your opponent's piece A to jump piece 2, but it cannot then jump piece 1 because it is against the edge of the board. After your opponent has captured your piece 2, the you can use your piece 1 to jump piece A. In the basic scenario described, this is an unexciting 1-for-1 trade. However, after setting up your trapping pair, you can often wait to "trigger" it until the opportunity for a double capture arises.

Use the "Redirect Your Enemy" strategy. To use "Redirect Your Enemy," you will need to designate 6 pieces on one side of your board as group A and the other 6 on the other side as group B. You will use these designations to determine what pieces you move at different times in the game. Move the pieces in A group almost exclusively at the start of the game, only occasionally moving a B piece when there is no good A move. When you begin trading pieces with your opponent, trade A pieces over B pieces whenever possible. Once a few capture exchanges have happened, your opponent will likely be concentrated on the side of the board with your A pieces. Begin advancing your B pieces in groups and you'll be in a strong position to crown past your opponent's depleted defenses.

Preparing for Tournament Play

Decide which rules of checkers to follow. Some tournaments are run using basic checkers rules, referred to as Go As You Please, GAYP, or freestyle. Others follow the 3-move rules, which limit players' options at the start of the game to a set of three move sequences. (The 3-move rules greatly reduce the possibility of a draw between skilled players.)

Study a checkers strategy guide that matches your rules system and skill level. More recent books will contain up-to-date strategic advances, but this is less important if you're a beginner. Browsing the checkers shelf at a library or bookstore can help you find a book that is helpful and fun to read.

Practice and memorize specific opening sequences. For 3-move play, find an encyclopedia of 3-move openers. For GAYP rules, select a preferred opener and practice games with every possible response from your opponent. Memorizing specific board states from the mid-game and endgame can be useful as well, but you're much less likely to encounter a specific midgame in a tournament than one of the standard openers.

Play against the best opponents you can find. Playing against more experienced players who are willing to share their knowledge is a great way to improve your game. Whether that means entering tournaments or finding your local amateur expert, the better your opponents are, the more you'll learn.