Complete guide: the goal, diagonal moves, mandatory captures, capture chains, promotion to king, controls on muta.pro and tips for beginners. Read it — and head straight to the board.
Checkers is a duel of two armies on an 8×8 board. Your task is to deprive the opponent of all moves: either capture all of their pieces, or block the remaining ones so they have nowhere to go. Whoever is first left without pieces or without a possible move loses. All pieces move only on the dark squares and only diagonally.
Each player has 12 pieces of their color — white and black. They occupy the dark squares on the three nearest rows on each side of the board. The light squares are not used in the game. White moves first, after which players alternate moves one at a time.
A regular piece moves one square diagonally and only forward — onto a free adjacent dark square. Regular pieces do not move backward.
Without a capture you may move only one step per turn. You cannot jump over your own pieces or empty squares.
Players move strictly in turn: White first, then Black. You cannot skip a move — if a move is possible, it must be made.
If you can capture an opponent's piece, the capture is mandatory — you cannot make a simple move at that moment.
To capture an opponent's piece, jump over it diagonally onto the empty square right behind it. The captured piece is removed from the board.
You may capture along any of the four diagonals — including backward, even with a regular piece. The forward-only rule does not apply to captures.
If after a jump the same piece can capture again — it is required to continue. Several of the opponent's pieces are removed in a single series of jumps in one move.
When a capture is available, you cannot choose a regular move. If you click a piece that has no capture, the game will remind you that a mandatory capture exists.
A regular piece that reaches the last row on the opponent's side becomes a king and is marked with a crown. The king moves diagonally in any direction and over any distance over free squares, and captures along all four diagonals. It is the strongest piece — a single king can sweep the board from corner to corner.
Mini fragments of an 8×8 board. Pieces move only on the dark squares. The active piece is ringed in gold, the target square is marked with a gold dot, and the opponent's piece being captured is shown in red.
The game ends in a winwhen the opponent has no pieces left or cannot make a single move — all of their pieces are blocked. On muta.pro the outcome is announced automatically: a window with the winner appears. A player can also resign with a button, in which case victory is awarded to the opponent.
Do not advance pieces one by one — pieces in a tight formation are harder to capture.
Capturing is mandatory, so it is sometimes worthwhile to offer a piece in order to take two in return.
A piece breaking through to the last row changes the game dramatically — keep a free lane open for it.
Do not rush to move your back row: it prevents the opponent from reaching kings.
In Russian draughts the pretty shots repeat from game to game — it pays to recognise them "on sight". They all work off the same lever: the opponent must capture, and his reply can be calculated in advance. Below are three basic motifs from which almost every combination is built.
You offer a piece so that after the forced capture your own return chain opens up on the opponent. You gave one and took two. You must calculate the position after his capture, not before.
A single piece of yours on a central square holds two diagonals under potential capture at once. The opponent cannot cover both — he has to give up a piece on whichever side he could not reach.
With a sacrifice you force the opponent's piece onto the square you need, where it immediately falls into a pin against the edge or under a return shot. The bait is always a "free" piece.
The "Bridge": the black piece (●) captures one white piece (○), but its jump places it under a return capture by the second black piece — a two-for-one exchange, the landing square marked in gold.
A breakthrough is when, through a series of exchanges, you clear one diagonal all the way to the king row and push a piece down it. This is the most common decisive combination in Russian draughts: a fresh king shatters the whole defence. But you must calculate the breakthrough to the end — up to the first move of the new king, otherwise the opponent will take it with a return chain.
This is a piece two or three moves from the last rank with an almost clear path in front of it. It is worth giving up one or two pieces to let it through — a king is stronger.
Often both players rush for kings at the same time. The winner is the one who gets there half a move earlier and, with that very first king, captures or pins the other.
A king that lands on a square where it is immediately cut down along a diagonal is a gift. Check that the king square and the cells next to it are not covered.
Breakthrough: the lower black piece (●) travels down a clear diagonal to the last rank (the gold square) and turns into a king (♛).
Because there is no chance element, draughts is the arithmetic of the move. Two skills separate a beginner from a solid player: the ability to count tempo (who will be forced to retreat first) and the ability to choose which capture to begin with when several are available.
Every "empty" move along the edge hands the opponent half a tempo. In an equal position the winner is the one for whom the turn to move has fallen favourably by the time of the first capture.
The rules of Russian draughts do not force you to take the "majority" — you are free to choose any capture. But a chain once begun must be carried to the end, so the first jump sets the whole sequence.
Before you capture, mentally play out the whole sequence to the last piece removed and see where your piece ends up. Sometimes a "greedy" capture leaves it under a return shot.
A practical trick: before an exchange, count the free dark squares between your pieces and the opponent's along the line of contact. An even number of squares more often means the opponent will have to retreat first — and so the opposition and the forced move will be yours.
More than half of beginners' losses come not from the opponent's shot but from their own blunder. The discipline is simple: every move, ask yourself three questions — what am I exposing, how will the opponent reply, am I locking myself in.
A man captures in all four directions, including backward. A square that looks "safe" is often covered by a backward capture — beginners fall for this most often.
If after a move your own piece has nowhere to go and nothing to capture, you are bringing on your own zugzwang. Leave your formation "escape hatches" to retreat through.
A lone advanced piece is almost always lost in a two-for-one exchange or caught in a pin. Neighbouring pieces should cover one another.
A blunder: the lone black piece (●) has stepped into the centre between two white pieces (○) — now it is under a two-for-one capture, and the only retreat is backward.
🔴 Can you capture backwards, is capturing compulsory, can you move backwards — the disputed checkers rules explained with examples in our blog: Disputed checkers rules: can you capture backwards and is capturing compulsory.