Checkers Tips & Strategy to Win More Often (Free Online)

The checkers tips that win the most games are these: open toward the center instead of the edges, keep your men connected so nothing can be jumped for free, hold the two “bridge” squares on your back row, check for a two-for-one shot before every move, bring your first king back out to hunt, trade pieces down whenever you’re ahead, and learn who holds the opposition once the board empties. Checkers has no dice and no hidden cards, so each of those habits is a pure skill edge — the player who sees one move further wins. You can practice all of them free in your browser at Offline Games Arcade, against a computer opponent on Easy, Medium or Hard.

This guide assumes you already know how the pieces move, that jumps are mandatory, and what a king does. If you don’t, start with our how to play Checkers rules guide, then come back here for the habits and the patterns.

Open toward the center, not the edges

In our version you play the red pieces from the bottom of the board, and you always move first. Spend that first move well.

Start with a central man. The best-known first move in checkers — written 11-15 in checkers notation and nicknamed “Old Faithful” — is widely regarded as the strongest way to begin. On this board it’s the second man from the left on your front row, moved diagonally right toward the middle.
Central men have twice the options. A man in the middle of the board has two forward squares to choose from. A man on the side has one. More options means more ways to answer whatever your opponent does next.
Edges are a shelter, not a plan. A piece on the side of the board can’t be jumped, which makes edge moves feel safe. But a board full of edge pieces can’t control anything. Use the side for a man that needs protecting later, not as your opening.
Develop in turn. For the first eight or ten moves, bring different men forward rather than marching one man up the board. Nothing should be more than a row ahead of its support.

Keep your men connected

A man can only be jumped if the square directly behind it is empty. That one fact is the whole of checkers defense.

Build pairs and triangles. A man with a friendly piece on the diagonal behind it can’t be captured from the front along that line, because there’s nowhere for the jumper to land.
Look at what you un-protect. When you move a man, the piece it was standing behind loses its cover. Most beginner blunders look exactly like this: the man that moved is fine, and the one it left behind gets jumped.
Fill holes before you advance. If one of your men has an empty square behind it and an enemy piece can reach the square in front, treat that as a jump waiting to happen and fix it first.

Guard your back row with the bridge

Keeping men at home stops your opponent from crowning kings — but you can’t keep all four there forever, because you’ll run out of other moves. The question is which ones to keep.

The answer is a formation called the bridge: two back-row men with a single gap between them. On this board, count the dark squares on your back row from the left and keep the second and fourth at home for as long as you can.

With those two in place, an enemy man heading for an empty crowning square has to step right next to one of your back-row men first, where it can be jumped unless a second enemy piece is standing directly behind it. In other words, your opponent needs two pieces working together to make one king. The other two back-row men — the corner one and the third from the left — are the ones to release first.

Look for a shot before every move

Because captures are forced, you can calculate in checkers instead of guessing. Three patterns come up constantly:

The two-for-one. You offer one man. The forced capture drags an enemy piece onto a square you chose, and your reply jumps that piece and continues over a second one. The signal to look for is two enemy pieces that will each have an empty square behind them once the forced capture has been made.
The fork. A piece — usually a king — lands between two enemy pieces that each have an empty square behind them. Both are under attack and your opponent can only move one. Old checkers books call this “the breeches”.
The squeeze. No sacrifice at all. You leave your opponent with nothing but bad moves, so that every legal option steps next to one of your men with an empty square behind it. This is how most close endgames are actually won.

The same logic works against you. If you’re handed a free piece you’ll be forced to take it, so the checking has to happen one move earlier. Before you play anything, run three questions:

Do I have a jump right now? If so, which of my options leaves me best placed afterwards?
After my move, can anything of mine be jumped — including the piece I just stopped protecting?
After their most likely reply, what jump will I be forced to make, and where does it leave my piece?

Bring your king back out

Getting crowned is half the job. A king that sits on the back row admiring itself is doing less work than the man it used to be.

Turn around immediately. March the king back toward the center, where it attacks in four directions.
Hunt from behind. Enemy men can’t move backward, so a king behind their lines can pick off any man that has no partner covering it.
Don’t overpay for it. A king is worth more than one man but less than two — the computer opponent’s own scoring rates it the same way. Giving up two men to crown one is usually a losing trade.

Trade down when you’re ahead

Twelve pieces against eleven is a small edge. Three against two is a huge one, and it’s the same one-piece lead. Every even exchange makes your advantage bigger in proportion, so once you’re a piece up, swap one-for-one at every safe chance.

The endgame is where this pays off:

Two kings beat one. A lone king’s best hiding place is the double corner — the corner where the corner square itself is light and two dark squares sit beside it. On this board that’s your bottom-right and the computer’s top-left. Two kings working together can still force it out and win.
One king can’t beat one king there. A single king can shuffle between the two double-corner squares indefinitely. So if you’re the one who’s behind, run for the double corner; if you’re ahead, make sure you keep two kings, not one.
Three kings beat two by the same method: force a one-for-one swap and you’re back to two against one.

Learn the opposition

Late in the game, with a few pieces each and no jumps available, the player who has to move is often the one who has to step into a capture. Checkers players call having the last safe move the opposition, or simply “the move”.

When both sides have the same number of pieces, there’s a counting trick for it. On your turn, count every piece — both colors — standing in the four columns that contain your own back-row dark squares. On this board that’s the first, third, fifth and seventh columns from the left. If the total is odd, you have the move; if it’s even, your opponent does.

A one-for-one exchange usually flips the answer. So if you count and find the opposition is against you, look for a trade before the position locks up.

Beat the computer at each level

The game keeps a separate win–loss record for each difficulty, so it’s easy to see when you’re ready to step up.

Easy plays random legal moves. Treat it as a tactics gym: set up two-for-ones on purpose and watch them work.
Medium grabs captures and avoids moves that let you jump straight back, but it only checks one reply ahead. A shot that needs a quiet setup move first will usually get through.
Hard searches four moves ahead and looks deeper as pieces come off, so short tricks won’t land. Win on structure instead: keep the bridge, stay connected, never lose a man cheaply, and build your lead before the endgame.

When you want a change of pace, the same thinking carries over to other games in the arcade:

Chess — forks and forcing moves with a much bigger cast.
Reversi — another game where the greedy move is usually the wrong one.
Four in a Row — pure look-ahead; great for drilling “if I go here, they go there”.
Dots and Boxes — a counting endgame where whoever is forced to move loses the big chain.
Nim — the opposition idea in its purest form.
Mancala — counting ahead with no luck involved.
Backgammon — blocking and timing with dice; see our backgammon tips for that one.

FAQ

What is the best first move in checkers? 11-15, nicknamed “Old Faithful”, is widely regarded as the strongest opening move. It brings a front-row man toward the center, where it has the most options and supports the pieces around it.

Can you win at checkers every time? No. Computer analysis completed in 2007 showed that checkers is a draw when both sides play perfectly. In practice, people and casual computer opponents make mistakes, and the player with better habits wins far more often.

Should you keep your back row in checkers? Keep part of it. Holding all four back-row men too long leaves you short of moves, so keep the two bridge squares guarded and release the other two first.

What is the opposition in checkers? It means having the last safe move in an endgame, so your opponent is the one forced to step into a capture. With equal pieces you can work it out by counting the pieces in the columns that contain your own back-row squares.

Can I practice checkers online for free? Yes. Checkers at Offline Games Arcade is free to play in your browser with no download or sign-up, against the computer on three difficulty levels.

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