How to Play Turkish Checkers

What is Turkish checkers?

Checkers is a game of encirclement for two players. Each has 16 pieces; the aim is to capture all of your opponent's pieces or leave them with no legal move. There are no dice and no luck.

The game played here is Turkish draughts, and every rule below is what the engine enforces. It differs from international (diagonal) draughts — the biggest difference is that pieces move straight, not diagonally.

The board and setup

The board is 8×8, 64 squares. Each player fills their second and third rows — 8 + 8, sixteen pieces in all. Your back row stays empty, and the two middle rows start empty.

How pieces move

An ordinary piece moves one square forward, left or right. It does not move backwards and does not move diagonally. It cannot enter an occupied square.

Capturing

If an adjacent enemy piece (forward, left or right) has an empty square behind it, you jump over it, land behind it and capture it. An ordinary piece cannot capture backwards.

A captured piece is removed immediately, not at the end of the move — so the same piece cannot be captured twice in one turn.

Capturing is compulsory

If a capture is available you must take it; you may not move something else. And if several captures are available you must play the one that takes the most pieces. The engine only highlights legal moves, so you do not have to memorise this — but it explains why another piece will not respond to your click.

Chain captures

After a capture you continue capturing with the same piece as long as captures remain. The whole chain is one turn.

Kings

A piece that reaches the far row becomes a king. A king moves any number of empty squares along a row or column — forwards, backwards or sideways — and captures at a distance, landing on any empty square beyond the piece it takes.

Winning

You win by capturing all of your opponent's pieces or by leaving them with no legal move.

Playing here

Click a piece and the squares it may reach are highlighted, then click the destination. See Playing games here.