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Checkers the way it's played at the kitchen table

Crown Jump Checkers plays standard American checkers, also called English draughts. Twelve men a side on the dark squares, men move one square diagonally forward, and jumps are a must: if you can take a piece, you have to. You choose which jump when there's more than one, and once a multi-jump starts you finish the chain. A man that reaches the far row is crowned, and crowning ends the move.

You win by taking every enemy piece or by leaving the other side with no legal move. A game is drawn when the same position comes up three times, or when both sides play 40 moves each with no capture and no man moved.

The World Tour

The Tour runs through six places, from The Porch at Mapleview and the Lazy Heron Riverboat to The Grand Hall of Crowns. The early rivals leave pieces hanging and walk into jumps, so a first win comes quickly. By the Lantern Festival they see several moves ahead, and The Grand Duke at the end searches deep for over four seconds a move.

Each rival has three crowns: win, win with no undo and no hints, and win with 5 or more of your pieces left. That's 60 crowns, and your total is your score on the Tour leaderboard. Rivals have styles you'll learn to read. Traders swap and push, defenders sit on their back row, king hunters race for the crown row and shot makers set traps that end in multi-jumps.

Two players, house rules and puzzles

Two Players is checkers for two people on one device. Quick Play has ten strengths. In both, you can switch on Casual, where jumping is optional, or Flying kings, an international-style game where kings glide any distance along a diagonal. The Tour and the puzzles always use standard rules.

There are 180 puzzles in six packs, from Porch Puzzlers to Grand Combos. Most are not a plain jump but a quiet move or a sacrifice that forces the other side into a bigger jump of yours. The Daily Puzzles are three of those, harder as you go, the same for everyone that day. A clean solve is worth 400 points plus up to 100 for speed.

Three tips before your first game

• Keep men in pairs. A man with a friend right behind it can't be jumped from the front.
• Guard your back row. While you hold it, the other side can't crown.
• Use the forced jump. Give up one piece on purpose to pull an enemy man onto a square where you jump two.

The full rules, the double corner endgame and more strategy are in our Crown Jump Checkers guide. If you enjoy thinking a few moves ahead, try chess against 30 rivals next.

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