How to Play Checkers and Win

You can play checkers to win. Persistence and patience are some of the things that you’ll need to win. Practice playing checkers, and learn from your mistakes. Play several moves ahead in your head, then replay the game in your mind when you’re done. Your aim is to find ways to play the game better.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Know the basic rules of the game if you want to play checkers to win (see Resources below)

2. Ask your opponent to “crown” your piece once it makes it to the other side. Move this piece one square diagonally (you can move it forward and backward). Anticipate what your opponent will do to prevail over you. Plan several moves ahead and include how you’ll negate your opponent’s moves in your plans.

3. Watch professional checker players play checkers to win. Study each move they make, and try to figure out why they made that move. Realize that each move has a purpose. Listen to their conversation after the game. They’ll usually sum up what they did wrong, and what they could have done better. Feel free to ask them questions about their moves.

4. Practice playing checkers on your own. You could play against yourself or against the computer (see Resources below). Practice visualizing the next moves your opponent will make. Review the entire game after you complete it. Examine what you did wrong and what you did right.

5. Study books on how to play checkers to win. Understand the authors' reasoning behind why certain moves are made (see Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

• Playing against yourself provides a challenge. It helps you operate to win when you think your opponent is on to you.
• You can capture multiple pieces if they’re diagonally aligned and separated by one diagonal square.
• The checker board has numbers assigned for the squares the checker pieces operate in. Memorize these numbers. The next time you play checkers, have a legal pad ready. Record every move made so that you can reconstruct the game later.
• If you’re playing in a tournament, you’re under time constraints. If you don’t make a move within these time constraints, you lose the game.

Resources

• Checkers Rules
• "Play Winning Checkers" by Robert Pike
• "Win at Checkers" by Millard Hopper
• "How to Win at Checkers" by Fred Reinfeld
• Play Checkers Online