Checkers Puzzle for 16 September 2026 — Black to move

The idea

A breakthrough brings a man to the far row and crowns it as a king. The new king can move along open diagonals in either direction and capture from a distance, which can change the position substantially. Crowning alone does not guarantee a win: the king may face an immediate capture, or the opponent may have active kings of their own. Look for a clear route to the promotion row, then inspect the reply from the resulting board. On this site crowning ends the turn, including a capture chain. A newly crowned piece cannot continue jumping until a later turn.

Black to move. Black has 8 men on 5, 21, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31 and 32; Red has 7 men on 3, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13 and 16. Black has 1 more man than Red. Black has a man in Red's half of the board against 0 coming the other way. Black has 8 legal full turns to compare: 0 capture lines and 8 quiet choices.

Solution: 5-1. Black plays 5-1, crowning on 1. After this combination, Black has 7 men and a king and Red has 7 men. The game continues from this position. One continuation from the search is 16-20 21-17 13x22 25x18 12-16 32-27 16-19 18-14 10x17 1x10x24. The man on 5 is already one step from the crown row. Moving it to 1 changes its mobility without changing the total number of pieces. Black finishes with seven men and a king against seven men, but still has a game to play. Inspect the new king’s diagonals before returning to the moves of the remaining men. In both alternatives shown below, Black spends its two turns moving other men and still has no king at the end of the sample.

Alternative 31-27: one sample line is 31-27 10-15 27-24. The board then has 8 men for Black and 7 men for Red. Alternative 25-22: one sample line is 25-22 16-19 21-17. The board then has 8 men for Black and 7 men for Red. Compare these sample lines with the solution and check other legal replies before judging the resulting position.

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