Checkers Varieties Make the Game Exciting – Different Types of Checkers

The most commonly played versions of checkers use the standard British-American checkers rules that almost everyone is familiar with. However, there are many different checkers varieties that you may run into from time to time. These different types of checkers are typically not all that different from the standard checkers versions, but may slightly vary in interesting twists that are added to the game. These checkers variations are well worth checking out. Below are some of the more common varieties of checkers and the rules that make them different from each other.

Suicide Checkers

This checkers variety is also popularly known as anti-checkers, since its rules make it somewhat the opposite of regular checkers. Contrary to the normal checkers variety, the winner of this game is player that loses all of his or her checkers pieces first, or the player that has run out of any legal moves.

International Draughts

In the International draughts variety of checkers, the game is played on a 10x10 board with 20 checkers pieces being given to each player. In this variant, kings are allowed to move across several squares just as long as the squares are open. This rule is also commonly known as "flying kings". If any player has the option to take more than one path to jump and capture his or her opponent's checkers pieces, he or she must take the option that will result in the capture of the most checkers pieces. If any checkers piece lands in the king’s row during a jump, it must proceed with another capture backward if the option is available. If the move does not end with the checker in the king row, it will not be crowned even though it has passed through that row.

Canadian Checkers

This variety of checkers is played on a 12x12 board with 30 checkers pieces given to each player. However, the rules are the same as those of International draughts.

Brazilian Checkers

This type of checkers is played on an 8x8 board. Again the rules are just the same as International draughts.

Italian Checkers

This checkers type is played on an 8x8 board, with the main difference from British-American checkers being that regular checkers pieces are not allowed to capture kings.

Chinese checkers

Although it shares a similar name, Chinese checkers is not actually a checkers variety, and is played on a star-shaped board with marbles or pegs.