Checkers

Checkers — draughts outside North America — descends from games scratched into stone in ancient Egypt and took its modern form in medieval France and England. The American/English rules used here are deceptively compact: men move one diagonal step, captures are compulsory, and a man that reaches the far row is crowned. From those rules flows a deep game of traps and exchanges that has been studied seriously for over a century.

This is a faithful implementation of those rules. You play red from the bottom of an 8×8 board with 12 pieces a side. Captures are mandatory — pieces that must capture light up, and only their landing squares are offered — and a capture that can continue must continue, so multi-jumps are forced with the same piece. Reaching the far row crowns a king (marked ♛) that moves and captures one square in any diagonal direction, though crowning ends your turn immediately, as the official rules demand. Play against the computer, which values captures and kinging in its move choices, or switch to 2 Players for a hotseat game. You win by capturing all enemy pieces or by leaving the opponent with no legal move.