Grok Checkers
American checkers (English draughts) on an 8×8 board. Play Grok at five levels from Cadet to Grandmaster, or challenge real players online with ratings and optional clocks.
Intro
Grok Checkers follows the standard American rules. Grok thinks in a background worker with an alpha-beta search that always plays out capture sequences to the end, so it never misses a forced jump and the page never freezes while it plans.
How to play
- Pick Vs Computer or Online at the top.
- Against the computer: type your name, choose Grok's level and your colour (Black, White or Random) and press Start game. Black always moves first.
- Click one of your pieces, then click a highlighted square. For a multi-jump, click each landing square in turn. The chain carries on until no jump is left.
- There are no takebacks. Your game is saved after every move, so you can close the tab and carry on later.
Rules
- Pieces move one square diagonally forward onto a dark square. Kings move one square diagonally in any direction, forwards or backwards.
- You capture by jumping over an enemy piece next to you onto the empty square just beyond it. Captures are mandatory. If several captures are possible you may choose any of them, not only the longest.
- After a jump, if the same piece can jump again it must carry on in the same move (a multi-jump). A piece can never jump the same enemy piece twice.
- A man that reaches the far row is crowned a king. Crowning ends the move, even if the new king could jump again.
- You win when your opponent has no pieces left or cannot make a legal move. You can also win by resignation, and online on time.
- The game is drawn by agreement, by the same position coming up three times with the same player to move, or after 40 moves each with no capture and no man move (kings only shuffling).
Levels
Cadet looks one move ahead and plays loosely, Pilot three, Captain six, Admiral searches deeply for about 2 seconds and Grandmaster for about 3 seconds. Every level sees capture chains through to the end.
Online play
Join the lobby with a name; it is protected by a key saved in your browser, the same name and key as Grok Chess online. Post an open challenge or challenge a player by name, choose your colour and a clock (none, 10+0 or 5+3). Every move is checked on the server. Wins, losses and draws change your Elo rating (everyone starts at 1200). The page checks for your opponent's move every few seconds and pauses while the tab is hidden.
Leaderboards and chat
The Scores tab shows the best wins, the online ratings and the site-wide totals. Grok Chat sits in the corner: press it to talk to other players. Use Share on X at the top to tell your friends.
Play at https://rtwl.fun/games/checkers/
Made by Lawless Alien, built at the desk by Lawless and Grok. Watch Real Time With @LawlessAlien on YouTube.