The goal
You win by capturing all of your opponent's pieces or leaving them with no legal move on their turn. There is no score: a game ends in a win, a loss or a draw.
The board and pieces
Checkers is played on an 8 by 8 board, and pieces sit and move only on the dark squares. Each player starts with 12 men on the three rows closest to them; the two middle rows start empty.
On Selminha.com, one side plays with oil drums and the other with tires. A king shows up as two pieces stacked, in a brighter color, with a crown on top.
Each player has a dark square in the corner on their left.
Who moves first
The drums always make the first move. Against the computer, you play the drums and move first; in an invite game, whoever created the invite gets the drums and moves first. After that, players take turns, one move each.
How men move and jump
- A man moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty square.
- It captures by jumping over an enemy piece on the next diagonal square and landing on the empty square right behind it.
- In English checkers, a man can only jump forward.
- If the same man can jump again after landing, it keeps jumping in the same move. This is a multiple jump, and it only ends when there is nothing left to jump.
Mandatory capture
If you can jump, you must. When that happens, the game shows only capturing moves and marks the piece to be taken. This applies to men and kings alike.
When more than one capture is available, you may pick any of them, even one that takes fewer pieces. Once you start a jump, though, you have to complete the whole sequence.
Kings
A man that ends its move on the far row is crowned and becomes a king. In English checkers, a king moves one square at a time in any diagonal direction, forward or backward.
A king captures the same way a man does, by jumping an adjacent enemy piece and landing right behind it, but it can jump forward or backward and chain jumps in any direction.
Special cases
- Captured pieces
- They come off the board only when the move is over. Until then they stay in place, and no piece can be jumped twice.
- Crowning ends the move
- Since men only jump forward, a man that reaches the far row during a jump stops there and is crowned. It can capture again only on a later turn, as a king.
- No legal move
- If it is your turn and you have no legal move because your pieces are blocked, you lose the game.
End of the game and draws
You win by capturing all of your opponent's pieces or leaving them with no legal move on their turn. The game is a draw in these cases:
- 20 king moves
- 20 moves in a row, counting both players, have been made only with kings and without any capture.
- Repeated position
- The same position has come up three times with the same player to move.
- Draw by agreement
- In a game with someone, one player offers a draw and the other accepts.
The other rule sets in the game
The game on Selminha.com has six rule sets. In all of them the board is 8 by 8, men move one square diagonally forward, capturing is mandatory, a multiple jump runs to the end, captured pieces come off only when the move is over, and the same draw rules apply. Here is what changes in the other five:
- Brazilian
- 12 men a side. Men jump forward and backward. Kings fly: they move any distance along a diagonal and capture from a distance, landing on any empty square beyond the captured piece. You must take the capture that removes the most pieces (a king counts as one piece); if captures are equal, you choose. A man that reaches the far row mid-capture and can still jump keeps going as a man, and is crowned only if the move ends there.
- Russian
- 12 men a side. As in Brazilian, men jump forward and backward and kings fly. But any capture will do, and a man that reaches the far row mid-capture is crowned on the spot and keeps capturing as a king.
- Spanish
- 12 men a side. Men jump forward only. Kings fly. You must take the capture that removes the most pieces, as in Brazilian.
- Italian
- 12 men a side. Men jump forward only and cannot capture a king. Kings move one square at a time and capture by jumping an adjacent piece. You must take the capture that removes the most pieces; if two captures take the same number, you must take the one that captures more kings and, if they are still tied, the one made by a king.
- Thai
- 8 men a side, on two rows. Men jump forward only. Kings fly and can land on any empty square beyond the captured piece. Any capture will do.
The rule set you picked shows at the top of the screen and in the pause menu. Outside Selminha.com, each rule set has its own customs: in traditional checkers the dark pieces move first, and in Spanish checkers, between captures of the same size, the one that takes more kings usually has priority. Here, the rules on this page are the ones that apply.
Options on Selminha.com
- Rule set
- Six to choose from in the menu. The English version starts with English checkers, and your choice sticks as long as the page stays open. In an invite game, the room creator's rule set applies, and whoever joins sees it before accepting.
- Against the computer
- Four opponents, from weakest to strongest: the Tamer (very easy), the Driver (easy), the Warden (medium) and the Executive (hard). All of them play every rule set.
- With someone by link
- Tap PLAY WITH SOMEONE and send the link. The game is saved on the site, and each of you plays your turn whenever you can.
- During a game with someone
- You can offer a draw or resign. If your opponent goes more than two days without moving on their turn, you can end the game and claim the win by forfeit. A room with no moves for 7 days expires with no winner.
- Watching and rematch
- Anyone who opens the link to a full room can watch. At the end, if both players agree, a new game starts in the same room.
Tips for beginners
- Before every move, check whether it leaves one of your pieces open to a jump. Since captures are mandatory, your opponent can sacrifice a piece to force your jump and then answer with a bigger one.
- Keep men on your back row as long as you can: they make it harder for your opponent to get there and crown a king.
- Center squares give your men more options than edge squares.
- In English checkers only kings can move backward, so your first king makes a big difference.
- When you are ahead in pieces, trade pieces: the fewer pieces on the board, the more your lead counts.