Rules of Checkers

Checkers is played on the dark squares of a 8x8 checker board. As shown below, each player starts with 12 men on the three rows closest to the player. The dark color (Black) moves first, and players alternate turns.

The winner is the last player to complete a legal move. Normally a player loses when all of his pieces are captured, thus leaving him with no legal moves. But a player also loses if his remaining pieces have no legal moves.

      A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  8 |   |*C*|   |*C*|   |*C*|   |*C*| 8 
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 
  7 |*C*|   |*C*|   |*C*|   |*C*|   | 7 
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  6 |   |*C*|   |*C*|   |*C*|   |*C*| 6 
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  5 |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   | 5 
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  4 |   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::| 4 
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  3 |:C:|   |:C:|   |:C:|   |:C:|   | 3 
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  2 |   |:C:|   |:C:|   |:C:|   |:C:| 2 
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+  
  1 |:C:|   |:C:|   |:C:|   |:C:|   | 1 
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
      A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H

Checkers move 1 space diagonally forward, or jump diagonally forward over an adjacent piece to an empty space immediately beyond. The piece which is jumped over is captured. A series of jumps with the same piece may be done in a single turn.

When a checker reaches the far side of the board it is "crowned" and becomes a King.

Kings move and jump the same as checkers, but may move and capture backwards as well as forwards.

If a player has jumps available, he must jump. If a piece can continue jumping, it must. However, if a player has a choice of jumps he can choose any of them, not necessarily the longest one.

When making multiple jumps, all jumps are first completed, and then the captured pieces are removed from the board. However, you may not jump over the same piece twice.