Checkers Strategy Sitemap

01. Fundamentals - To play checkers badly is quite easy; and that is the way most people do play it.

Even if you don't play a perfect game of checkers, you can still enjoy the game. But checkers as the experts play it, with all its richness of ideas and exquisite economy of force, is much more fun. It is always more gratifying to play expertly and to win, than it is to flounder.

02. Winning Tactics - It is not easy for the beginner to realize that the compulsory nature of checker captures profoundly affects the tactics used in the game.

The point is this: since you know your opponent must accept any capturing opportunities you set before him, you can plan certain sequences that will win material for you or have other favorable consequences.

03. Spectacular Traps - Every checker player is thrilled by the opportunity to set off a brilliant multiple capture right in the opening. Such a capture generally leads to your getting an early King, and leaves your opponent demoralized and practically beaten at the very start.

But these traps are not only fun; they are eminently practical. Knowing them, you can make use of them repeatedly against weaker players; and, by the same token, you can avoid being trapped yoursel.

04. Opening - In the spectacular traps of the previous chapter, you saw how easy it is to go wrong in the opening. Before the unwary victim quite realizes what has happened, he has a lost game.

It is therefore useful to familiarize yourself with the most important recommended lines of play, so that you can get off to a good start. And in addition, if your opponent adopts in­ferior lines, you will be able to take advantage of his lapses.

05. Endgame - The inexperienced player is often at a loss to translate material advantage into final victory. Having no clear idea of how to proceed, he drifts in a way that can become very frustrating.

Where you are ahead in material, the guiding principle is reduction of forces. In endgames with Kings you bring this about by playing to force your opponent's Kings to the side of the board. In that position, their mobility will be reduced to a minimum, and you can enforce your will.

06. Draw - While the beginner is eager to win and considers winning a laudable ambition, he often lacks the proper attitude toward the draw. There are many desperate situations in checker games where it is quite a feat to be able to draw what is to all appear­ances a lost game. It is a good player's particular delight to sal­vage such positions from disaster

Appendix I: Laws - The Standard Board must be of 64 light and dark squares. The board must be placed so that each player has a dark single corner at his left hand.

The Standard Men, technically described as Black and White, must be light and dark (e.g., white and red, or white and black), and round.

The men shall be placed on the dark squares.

The Black men shall invariably be placed upon the first dark twelve squares of the board (numbered 1 to 12) the White men upon the last twelve dark squares (numbered 21 to 32).

Appendix II: Variants - In addition to the customary way of playing checkers, there are several interesting variants. These include:

Played the same way as ordinary checkers, with the following exceptions.

1. With a choice of captures, a player must capture the maximum possible of adverse pieces.
2. A King may move any distance along an open diagonal and capture by jumping to an adjacent vacant square beyond an adverse piece which is any distance away on that King's diagonal.
3. The double corner is at the players' left.

THE END