How to play

Each side starts with twelve pieces on the dark squares. Red moves first, upward. On your turn, tap one of your pieces that can move, then tap one of the highlighted squares. An ordinary piece (a “man”) moves one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square. To capture, jump diagonally over an enemy piece that is next to you into the empty square just beyond it; the jumped piece is removed. Captures are compulsory: if you can jump, you must, and the game only offers you the jumping moves. If, after a jump, the same piece can jump again, it keeps going in the same turn.

A man that reaches the far row is crowned a king (marked with a crown), and its turn ends. Kings move and capture diagonally in all four directions, one square at a time. You win when the other player has no pieces or no legal move. If 40 moves each pass with no capture and no man moved, the game is a draw. Against the computer, choose Easy (random moves but it always takes a capture), Medium (looks three moves ahead) or Hard (six moves ahead). Pick 2 players to play a friend on one screen.

Tips

Keep your pieces together and your back row at home as long as you can, because it stops the other side from getting kings. Control the center, trade pieces when you are ahead, and look at what a forced jump does: you can sacrifice one piece to force the other side’s jump and set up a double jump of your own. Kings are strong, so getting the first one often decides the game. This game follows the rules most widely known as American checkers; other countries have variants with flying kings or backward captures that are not used here.