Pool Checkers – A Checkers Game with Many Names

Pool checkers–or American pool checkers or shotgun pool checkers, as the game is sometimes known–is primarily played in the United States, particularly in the South-Eastern and Eastern parts of the country.

Just as in Russian and Brazilian checkers, Pool checkers uses flying kings. The rules of the game are actually quite similar to Russian checkers, with the difference being that the checkers pieces stop on the last row when they are crowned.

Pool Checkers Rules

Pool checkers is played on an 8x8 board with a total of 64 squares. The board is arranged so that the double corner is towards the right of each player.

Pool Checkers Moves

Each regular checkers piece is allowed to move towards each square in a forward left or forward motion if that square is empty. Upon arriving on the last row, the piece will then have to stop and be crowned a king.

A king is allowed to move on all squares that are on the 2 diagonals across it, as long as there is no piece between it and the destination square.

Pool Checkers Captures

When there is a choice between two or more captures, a player can choose which capture to make, although he or she can only stop in a square where there are no more captures left available.

A king is allowed to capture an opposing player’s checkers piece as long as it is on the same diagonal it is in, and if there are only empty squares between it and the opponent’s piece, and if the square on the other side of that piece is unoccupied. It can however stop on any square that is on the same line. If there are any possible captures available from one of these destination squares, the player must continue on with the remaining captures.

End of the Game

Any player that no longer has any legal moves left as a result of being blocked loses the game and the other player is declared the winner.