Checkers games

Play free checkers games online at Starbie!

Checkers (also called English draughts in some parts of the world), is thousands of year old and might possibly even be the oldest board game in existence. On this page, you’ll find a great collection of online checkers games to play for free. You can play against the computer, and in some titles challenge an online opponent. Hop over the other player’s pieces to capture them, and try to bring your pieces to the other side of the board to be crowned. If you want to play more strategic board games, check out our chess games page or our full board games collection.

Checkers games: board and rules

Checkers is played by two players using a checked board. Each player has their own set of pieces, which are usually black, white, or red. The pieces are called men, and they are placed only on the dark squares of the board. The men can only move forward diagonally by one step, unless they encounter an opponent’s piece, in which case they can jump over it to capture it. Men can only jump across one piece at a time, but depending on the rules applied they may continue to capture another piece if there is one in reach.

Crowning checkers pieces

If one of your pieces reaches the far end of the board, it will be ‘crowned’ by placing another piece on top of it. (Some checker sets have a crown painted on one side of each piece, in which case you can flip the piece over to indicate that it has been crowned.) This newly crowned ‘king’ piece has a greater range of movement per turn and can make successive jumps. Again, the extent of the king’s abilities depends on the rules you are following, which differ per game, tournament, and region. In a number of our games, you can alter the rules via the main menu to pick the game variation you want.

Chinese Checkers

You can also try the strategic board game known as Chinese Checkers, which is played on a star-shaped board with small dents. Like in the game draughts, your objective is to hop over the pieces. This time, however, you’re not hopping over them to clear them away, but in order to bring all of your pieces to the opposite corner before your opponents can do the same. You can play the game with 2, 3, 4, or 6 players. Chinese checkers is sometimes also called ‘Sternhalma’.