Play draughts (checkers) online with friends

What is draughts (checkers)?

Draughts is one of the oldest and most widely played board games, and it goes by two names: draughts in Britain and much of the Commonwealth, checkers in the United States. Both names mean the same game, English draughts: 12 pieces each on the dark squares of an 8×8 board. Other countries play their own versions, such as international draughts on a 10×10 board; Ping44 plays the English and American rules.

The rules fit on a postcard, yet the game is full of tactics. Because captures are compulsory, you can force your opponent's moves, offer one piece to win two, and set up long chains of jumps.

How to play draughts

Setup

Each player starts with 12 pieces, called men, on the dark squares of the three rows nearest them. The dark side (Black) moves first.

A turn

1. Move one man one square diagonally forward onto an empty dark square.
2. To capture, jump diagonally over an opponent's piece onto the empty square just beyond it. The jumped piece is removed.
3. Captures are mandatory: if you can capture, you must. When several captures are possible, you choose which one.
4. If the piece that just jumped can jump again, it must keep going with the same piece until no jump is left. You complete the whole chain in one turn.
5. Men move and capture forward only.

Kings

A man that reaches the far row is crowned a king. Kings move and capture one square diagonally in any direction, forward or backward. If a man reaches the far row during a capture, it is crowned and the turn ends there, even if the new king could jump again.

Winning and draws

• You win by capturing all your opponent's pieces or leaving them with no legal move, when their clock runs out, or when they resign.
• It's a draw when both players agree, when the same position comes up three times, or after 40 moves by each side without a capture or a man moving (only kings shuffling around). The server applies both rules by itself. A game that reaches 600 half-moves is also drawn.

Playing on Ping44

Tap a piece, then a highlighted square. Only legal moves are offered, so when a capture is available the board only lets you capture, and it reminds you to complete every jump with the same piece. You can offer a draw or resign during the match, and you're asked before you resign.

Draughts modes on Ping44

The host picks how you play under Play as in the lobby. With two players you always play one match.

Teams

Two teams play on one board: 2 to 8 players, up to four a side. The seats alternate between the white team and the black team, and teammates take their team's moves in a fixed order, so on a smaller team each player moves more often. Each team shares one clock. Only the teammate whose turn it is can move, offer or answer a draw, or resign for the team. A teammate who leaves is skipped, and a team everyone has left loses.

Tournament

A tournament takes 2 to 32 players in one-on-one matches, in one of two formats:

• Groups + knockouts (the default): balanced groups of the size the host picks (3 to 6 players, 4 by default, never fewer than three) play a round robin. A win is 1 group point and a draw ½, and the top two go through. Ties go to head-to-head points, then wins, then the random seed drawn at the start.
• Knockouts: a straight bracket from the first round, with byes filling an uneven bracket.

A drawn knockout match is replayed once with the colors swapped and full clocks; a second draw goes to a coin toss. Every match starts after a 10-second countdown. Players waiting for a match, knocked out or just watching can open any live or finished board.

Clocks

The clock per player (per team in Teams) is 1, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes, with none, 1, 2, 3, 5 or 10 seconds added after each move. The default is 5 minutes plus 2 seconds. Your clock only runs on your move.

Scoring on Ping44

• Tournament: each match you win scores 10 room points, and the champion gets 25 more. With two players the one match is the final, so its winner scores 35. Group points only decide who goes through.
• A match counts only once each side has made a move. Byes, and matches decided before then by someone leaving or a clock running out, score nothing.
• Teams: every member of the winning team scores 10 points. A draw scores nothing.
• If the host ends a tournament early, points for finished matches stay, but nobody is crowned champion. Leaving the room forfeits your unfinished matches.

Room scores add up across all the games you play in the room.

Tips and strategy

• Guard your back row. While your far-back men stay home, your opponent's men can't land on those squares to be crowned.
• Use forced captures. Since your opponent must jump, you can offer one man to pull a piece into a spot where you jump two in return.
• Look before you step forward. Before each move, check whether it hands your opponent a capture, especially a double jump.
• Hold the center. Men in the middle of the board have more options and are harder to trap.
• Trade when you're ahead. Even swaps make a material lead count for more as the board empties.
• Run for the double corner. In the endgame, an outnumbered king is hardest to trap in a double corner.

How to start a game of draughts on Ping44

1. Go to ping44.com, sign in (free, with email or Google) and create a room.
2. Share the invite link, the room code or the QR code. Friends can join as guests by just picking a name.
3. In the lobby, choose Board games, then Draughts in Game settings.
4. Under Play as, pick Teams or Tournament, then set the format, the clock and the time added per move.
5. Start the game. Everyone else in the room can watch.

Why play draughts on Ping44

• A private room that only the people you invite can join, with voice and text chat built in.
• No arguments about the rules. The server knows every legal move, enforces compulsory captures and multi-jumps, and keeps the clocks.
• Any group size. One match for two, two teams for up to 8, or a tournament for up to 32.
• More games in the same room. Switch to Barricade, Four in a Row, chess or the other board games without leaving.
• Free, with no ads, in the browser, with nothing to install.

Frequently asked questions