Checkers in the Park

A clay checkers board sits on a stone table in a city park, red pieces at your end and black across the board from you, and your opponent sits across it, someone different each game. Around the table the park goes on with its day: people walking their dogs along the paths, two kite flyers on the lawn, the city skyline beyond. The board and the pieces are painted clay, pressed and a little uneven, the way a set made by hand would be.

How it plays

This is the classic American game on the dark squares of an eight by eight board. Tap one of your red pieces, and the squares it can move to are marked; tap one of them and the piece moves. Men move one square diagonally forward. A capture jumps an enemy piece to the empty square beyond, and when one is there you must take it. A piece that lands where it can jump again keeps going, taking every piece it passes over. Reach the far row and your man is crowned a king, which moves and jumps both forwards and backwards. A side with no pieces left, or no move to make, loses.

You play against the computer at three levels. On Easy it looks one move ahead and often settles for a move that is only nearly the best. On Medium it looks three moves ahead, and on Hard six, so it sees most of the traps you set and sets a few of its own.

Tips

Keep your back row at home as long as you can: while it is full, the other side cannot crown a king. Pieces in the middle of the board have more moves than pieces on the edges. Because jumps are compulsory, you can offer one piece to pull an enemy piece where you can take two back.

Checkers in the Park needs WebGL; on a machine without it the page says so, and the 2D games in the arcade still work.

Play Checkers in the Park (free, in the browser; back to all games)