How to Win at Draughts

We all know how important it is to beat your best friend, sibling or friendly enemy when playing Draughts. It can really make or break a party if you are hailed as victorious or you have to congratulate your opponent with a thinly veiled grimace on your face.

We Are Tricycle has Giant Draughts among our collection of Giant Garden Games, and so we have created a blog filled with amazing tips on how to win at draughts or checkers! Read on to find out exactly how to make sure you (almost) always have your hand raised in victory!

Checkers, while the smaller cousin of the more stoic and daunting chess, is a very strategic game. Rushing quickly into moves will unusually always mean certain defeat. The first piece of strategy we can impart is to learn to control the centre of the board. Avoid the temptation to rush to the sides because you can't be jumped there. This is a foolish strategy. This is because the aim of the game is to attack and win, rather than remain safe. By getting to, and controlling the centre, you can launch more attacks. You have four directions to move in, which means more potential pieces to claim pieces!

Common sense tells us It's important to protect the King's rows. This means simply not moving the back pieces. However, this means you are severely limited in the moves you can make, you'll run out of moves with the other eight pieces, meaning you will either make a silly move or be forced to move a piece from the king's row. The other reason is this allows your opponent to advance nine, ten or eleven pieces against your eight. You will always be outnumbered when employing this tactic, meaning you're asking for trouble.

A final piece of advice would be to always have an excuse ready for when you sense you are losing. An appropriate excuse, sharp exit and draw is always a better outcome than a devastating loss!