Checkers: your first moves

A small board, a big plan

Welcome to Checkers Club. We are learning English, also called American, checkers. Different versions use different rules, so name the version first. In our pictures, red starts at the bottom and moves toward the top. The numbers help us name places.

Count spaces, not pieces

The board has eight rows with eight squares in each row. That makes sixty four squares altogether. The light and dark colors alternate. Only the dark squares are used for play. The light squares have a very peaceful job: nobody lands on them.

Set up both teams

Red fills the first three rows of dark squares. Four pieces in each of three rows makes twelve. White has twelve pieces at the other end. Eight dark squares in the middle stay empty. Red goes first. Count the spaces separately from the pieces.

Follow one diagonal

Now use this small position. Red has a man on nine, and white has a man on twenty four. No capture is available. Red can take one diagonal step to thirteen or fourteen. A diagonal crosses a corner. It does not go straight sideways.

No sideways shortcuts

A man steps forward, not backward. It must land on an empty dark square. It cannot slide across several empty squares. It also cannot take a little taxi ride sideways. Before every move, look for a required jump. We will practice jumps in the next lesson.

Pause: find two destinations

Here is a new position. Red has a man on ten. White has a man on twenty eight. Every other square is empty, and no red capture is available. Pause the video. Which two numbered squares are diagonally forward from ten? Point to each before saying its number.

Check the two paths

Fourteen and fifteen are the two forward neighbors. Both are empty, so either step is legal. Six and seven are behind this red man. An empty square is not enough: it must also be in the allowed direction. Explain the direction, not just the number.

Give the next player a turn

After one complete ordinary move, the other player moves. In these pictures, white men move toward the bottom because that is their far edge. Forward depends on the player. It does not mean both teams march toward the top and bump into the same wall.

A color that never changes

Fun fact: every legal diagonal step stays on the same color. A jump does too. You can trace a diagonal with your finger and watch it visit dark squares again and again. The piece changes its address, but it never needs a light square as a landing place.

Build your first plan

Continue to the worksheet below. Count the board and its pieces, then try Choose a Legal Checkers Step for a new position. After that, open Checkers Club and choose the teaching puzzles. Say your plan out loud: my piece, its destination, and why that step is allowed.