English Checkers

English checkers, known as draughts outside North America, is the version played on an eight-by-eight board with twelve pieces a side. It looks simpler than chess and it is, but only in the sense that a knife is simpler than a Swiss army knife. Every piece moves the same way and the board is half the size, which means there is nowhere to hide a mistake. The rule that gives the game its character is compulsory capture: if a jump is available to you, you must take it. That single constraint turns the game into something closer to a puzzle than a brawl, because a good player does not attack you directly. They offer you a piece, and because you are forced to take it, you walk into the position they wanted.

Pieces move one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. If an opposing piece sits diagonally adjacent and the square directly beyond it is empty, you jump it and remove it from the board, and if another jump is available from the landing square you must keep jumping in the same turn. Reach the far row and your piece is crowned a king, which can then move and jump both forward and backward. You win by capturing every enemy piece or by leaving your opponent with no legal move at all.

Because captures are compulsory, the strongest weapon in the game is the offered sacrifice. Give up one piece to force a jump that exposes two, and you come out ahead. Hold your back row as long as you can — every gap in it is a square where the opponent can crown a king. Keep your pieces connected in a diagonal chain rather than pushing one runner up the board alone, since a lone piece can be blocked by a single defender. And when you are ahead on material, trade pieces at every opportunity. A two-piece advantage is small in a crowded position and decisive in an empty one.