Each side begins with 12 men placed on the dark squares of the three rows nearest that player. That is 24 pieces in all on the 8x8 board.
How many pieces are in checkers?
Quick answer: In standard 8x8 checkers each player starts with 12 pieces, so there are 24 pieces on the board in total.
The number of pieces depends on the variant you are playing, but the standard game has a fixed and easy count.
Standard checkers
Bigger boards, more pieces
- International draughts uses a 10x10 board with 20 pieces per side.
- Canadian draughts uses a 12x12 board with 30 pieces per side.
Ready to put it into practice?
See how the board sets up