Checkers Strategy: Position, Tempo and Promotion

Once you know the rules of checkers, the game stops being about moving pieces forward and starts being about which squares you control, how many moves you have left before you're forced into a bad one, and how to make your opponent's compulsory captures work for you. This guide covers the four ideas that decide most games between club players: the centre, the shot, the back row, and tempo.

1. Control the centre

The four central squares — 14, 15, 18 and 19 — are the most valuable real estate on the board. A man in the centre can move to either side, supports its neighbours, and blocks the opponent's natural paths forward. A man on the edge (squares 5, 13, 21 or 12, 20, 28) has only one way forward and can be hemmed in.

Controlling the centre doesn't mean rushing men into it. A man that arrives in the centre unsupported is an easy target for an exchange. Build the centre with men behind it, so that if your opponent attacks, you can recapture and keep the square.

2. The shot: making forced captures work for you

Because captures are compulsory, you can deliberately give up a man to force your opponent's piece onto a square where it can be jumped — often together with another one. Checkers players call such a combination a shot. The simplest and most common shot is the two-for-one.

Look at why the shot works. The black man is forced from 15 to 22, where it stands directly in front of White's man on 26 with an empty square behind it. After the first jump, the white man lands on 17 next to the black man on 14 — and square 10 behind it is empty, so the second jump follows. Before every move, look for this pattern in both directions: a forced capture that lands an enemy piece in front of your man, with a second enemy piece one jump further along.

The same idea is the biggest danger for you. When your opponent offers a man for free, count what happens after your capture before you assume you've won material — but remember you don't get to refuse. The time to avoid a shot is the move before, by not leaving gaps behind your men.

3. Guard your king row

Every man that crowns becomes a king, and kings decide endgames. The cheapest way to stop your opponent from crowning is to keep some men on your own back row. The classic formation for White is the bridge: men on squares 30 and 32 (for Black, 1 and 3).

The bridge works because every square an enemy man must pass through on its way to 29, 30 or 31 is attacked by one of the two back men, as long as the landing squares 21 and 23 stay empty. It costs you two men that aren't moving forward, so strong players keep it through the opening and middlegame and only release it when they need those men for the endgame. Moving the back row early "to bring more pieces into play" is one of the most common beginner mistakes.

4. Tempo: counting the moves you have left

In checkers you can't pass, and men can't move backwards. That makes tempo — how far your men have advanced in total compared with your opponent's — a real resource. When the board gets crowded, the player who runs out of safe moves first has to make a bad one: step into a shot, give up the back row, or let the opponent through to crown.

• In the opening and middlegame, being slightly behind in tempo (having advanced less) is often good, because you keep spare moves for later.
• In the endgame, being ahead helps: your men are closer to crowning, and kings are what win.
• When the position is blocked, count the safe moves each side has. The side with more spare moves can wait until the other has to weaken.

5. Exchanges and simplification

An even exchange — one man for one — changes more than the material count. It opens squares, changes whose turn it is to find a safe move, and can break up your opponent's structure. Use exchanges to:

• Simplify when ahead. Twelve men against eleven is a small edge; three against two is usually winning.
• Break a strong centre. If your opponent holds 14 and 15 with support, an exchange can remove one of them.
• Gain a tempo. An exchange where you recapture with a man that was going to move anyway leaves your opponent to move next in a tighter position.

6. Using your kings in the endgame

With more kings than your opponent, don't chase single men around the board. Use your kings together: two kings can trap one against the edge, while a lone king tries to reach a double corner (the corner with two squares, 1–5 or 28–32), where it is hardest to catch. Bring your men forward to crown only when it's safe, and keep them away from squares where a single enemy king could jump them.

A simple thinking routine

1. What captures am I forced to make right now?
2. After my candidate move, what captures will my opponent be forced to make — and where will their pieces land?
3. Does that leave a gap behind any of my men that allows a shot?
4. Am I keeping my back row and enough spare moves for later?

Practise against the bot and, after each game, find the moment a shot appeared. Recognising the two-for-one in your own games is the fastest way to win more of them.