Checkers - Samurai Dojo

Classic checkers, the board game much of the world calls draughts, played against the computer in a samurai dojo of feudal Japan. Choose one of eight banners, march through its war of samurai duels, and break the sworn enemy waiting at the end of the road.

Fire burns every province between you and the sea. Water drowns the proud. Earth holds the wall, Air strikes from the high passes, Shadow hunts by night, and Light marches to restore the throne. Nature guards the old forest, and Mystic walks a forbidden rite. Every banner has its own story, its own enemies and its own end.

At the top of the Dojo Ladder sits Ishigaki, patient as masonry. Nobody walks past The Wall. You will have to move him.

Eight banners, eight samurai campaigns
• Shadow, Light, Nature, Mystic, Earth, Fire, Water and Air, each with a nine-duel campaign.
• Rival banners stand in your way, and your sworn opposite waits in the final duel.
• Win a campaign for its seal and a crown crest for your kings, never sold.
• Every banner brings its own board and room: a forge, a storm-lashed torii, a ghost-lit shrine, a temple at sunrise.
• Fire and Water are open from the start. Unlock the others with koban or a single purchase, and play any campaign's first duel free.

Eight samurai opponents, student to master
• Eight checkers AI opponents, each with a face, a name and a way of playing.
• Every card tells you plainly how far ahead they think and how often they slip.
• Sixty-four painted faces: each rival banner brings its own eight.
• All eight are open in a New Duel. Pick your fight, and pick the banner your enemy flies.
• Earn bronze, silver and gold seals for 3, 10 and 25 wins against each one.

The Dojo Ladder
• The training road: fourteen duels in three painted chapters, from the Students' Hall to the Masters' Gate.
• Your first duel lets the capture law sleep, so you learn how the pieces walk.
• Fell The Wall and his granite stones, split with molten gold, are yours.

Classic checkers rules, your way
• The 8×8 board, twelve pieces a side, kings crowned on the far row.
• American checkers by default: men capture forward only. Or let them capture backward too.
• Bushido, the forced-capture rule, is on by default. Turn it off in a New Duel.
• Long multi-jump chains are counted for you, hop by hop.
• One takeback in each New Duel. In a campaign, none.

A checkers puzzle every day
• The Daily Dojo Problem: one position a day, the same for every player. Find the forced win and keep your streak.

The Armoury
• Stone sets in carved bone, black iron, imperial jade, gold-leaf lacquer, obsidian, kintsugi and oni masks.
• Boards of kaya wood, tatami, raked sand and red or black lacquer, each with its own room.
• Captures that burst into sumi ink, cherry petals, embers, gold leaf or blood.
• Crests for your kings, victory finishers, living rooms and clan war banners.
• Four senseis who speak over your victories and defeats, never over your moves.

Fair by design
• Wins earn koban. Spend it in the Armoury.
• Everything in the Armoury is a look. It never changes a rule, an opponent or a result.
• Optional purchases: buy a banner, an item or a set once, and it stays yours.
• No energy and no wait timers.

For adults
A dark samurai world: oni masks, a castle in flames, and captures that can end in blood.

Choose your banner. Your move.