Checkers Unblocked — Play Free Online

Checkers is the old two-player board game of diagonal moves and jump captures, played here in the browser against the computer. A game is a slow, tidy contest compared with most of what sits around it on There Is No Game: no trick answers, no interface that lies to you, just twelve pieces a side and a board where every move changes the geometry.

If you came for the odd, self-aware puzzles that the headline game is known for, this is the palate cleanser. The rules are exactly what they look like, and the challenge is honest. Losing means you were out-thought, not out-tricked, which is a different kind of satisfying.

It loads in the frame above with nothing to install, and a game fits comfortably into a short break, though a close one can run longer than you expect.

How to play

You control one colour and move one piece per turn, using the mouse or a touch: click or drag a piece, then drop it on a legal square. Pieces travel diagonally on the dark squares and, in the classic game, only forward until they are crowned. You capture by jumping over an opposing piece into the empty square directly behind it, and a piece that reaches the far edge becomes a king, which can move in both directions.

A game ends when one side has no pieces or no legal move left. Checkers has several regional rule sets, such as whether captures are compulsory and whether kings can fly across the board, so if a move is refused that you thought was legal, the variant rules are the first thing to suspect.

Tips

• Keep your back row intact for as long as you reasonably can. It stops the opponent from crowning cheaply.
• Control the centre. Pieces in the middle have more options than pieces on the edge, which can get trapped.
• Before each move, look at what the reply could capture. Most lost pieces come from a move that left a gap behind it.
• Trade pieces when you are ahead. Fewer pieces on the board means your extra one counts for more.
• Think about forcing sequences: offering one piece so the opponent must jump can set up a double jump of your own.

Similar games on There Is No Game

Level Devil is the opposite temperament: a platformer whose level design cheats, where Checkers never does. Brain Test 4: Tricky Friends and Odd Bot Out are riddle-and-observation puzzles built on surprise answers, while Checkers rewards planning several moves ahead. The Password Game sits closer in spirit, since it is also about working inside a strict rule set.

Checkers suits anyone who wants a calm, thinking-first game, on either a keyboard-and-mouse setup or a touchscreen.