Checkers Notation

In checkers, only 32 squares of the 64-square board are used. The board is positioned with black squares in the upper-left and lower-right corners. Squares which may be occupied by pieces are numbered 1 to 32.

If you are playing white, the numbering proceeds left to right in a top-bottom direction. The two figures below show the starting position with black at the top, and the corresponding square numbers.

     

If you are playing black, the numbering proceeds right to left in a bottom-top direction. The two figures below show the starting position with white at the top, and the corresponding square numbers.

     

A move is annotated by indicating the source and destination squares of the piece moved, separated by a hyphen. For example, if you have the black pieces and play 11-15 as your first move from the above initial position, you will see the following position:

Unlike chess, piece promotions do not appear as part of the notation.

This convention for checker notation is used for all Chinook's games.

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Computing Science

Chinook